Iranian authorities arrested Nobel Peace Prize laureate Narges Mohammadi on Friday, her basis stated, citing her brother.
The Paris-based basis stated Mohammadi was “violently detained” by safety and police forces throughout a memorial ceremony for Khosrow Alikordi, a lawyer just lately discovered lifeless in his workplace. It cited “verified reports” and her brother, Mehdi. She was arrested in Mashhad, Iran’s second-largest metropolis.
One of Iran’s most outstanding human rights activists, Mohammadi received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2023.
In a statement Friday, the Norwegian Nobel Committee denounced the “brutal arrest” of Mohammadi and different activists and referred to as for her speedy launch.
“The Norwegian Nobel Committee calls on the Iranian authorities to immediately clarify Mohammadi’s whereabouts, ensure her safety and integrity, and to release her without conditions,” the five-member physique stated within the assertion issued by its chairman. “The Committee stands in solidarity with Narges Mohammadi and all those in Iran who work peacefully for human rights, the rule of law, and freedom of expression.”
Mohammadi has spent many of the previous 20 years as an inmate of Tehran’s Evin jail — infamous for detaining critics of the regime.
In December 2024, Iranian authorities suspended her jail time period for 3 weeks to permit her to recuperate from a surgical procedure she had in November to take away a part of a bone in her decrease proper leg, the place medical doctors had found a lesion suspected of being cancerous.
Mohammadi was anticipated to return to jail quickly afterward, however she had remained on furlough till Friday’s arrest. She has been sentenced to a number of jail phrases totaling 36 years on fees that embody performing in opposition to nationwide safety and spreading propaganda, in line with the Narges Foundation.
Over the previous 12 months, she has continued her activism and has been more and more vocal concerning the human rights state of affairs in Iran, addressing varied human rights occasions all over the world.
Last week, Mohammadi wrote an article for Time journal by which she stated the folks of Iran can’t really expertise peace because the state controls each facet of their private and personal lives.
“Their peace is disrupted by surveillance, censorship, arbitrary arrest, torture, and the constant threat of violence,” she wrote. In the piece, she referred to as for assist for Iran’s civil society, impartial media, human rights and girls’s rights defenders.
In an interview with NCS’s Christiane Amanpour in December 2024, whereas on her three-week medical launch from jail, she remained defiant. “Whether I am inside Evin or outside Evin, my goal is very clear, and until we achieve democracy, we are not going to stop,” she stated.
“We want freedom and we want equality. … So, whichever side of the wall I am, I will continue my struggle.”
The Narges Foundation stated a number of different activists have been additionally arrested through the memorial, however data relating to the state of affairs is restricted. It referred to as for “the immediate and unconditional release of all detained individuals who were attending a memorial ceremony to pay their respects and demonstrate solidarity.”
During her time behind bars, Mohammadi has detailed reviews of abuse and solitary confinement of detained ladies.
In letters and responses to NCS, she has told of incidents of sexual violence in opposition to her and different feminine detainees at completely different services relationship again to 1999.
Political prisoners and girls held on prison fees have been assaulted by safety forces, jail authorities and medical personnel, she stated.
The Iranian authorities has denied the widespread allegations of sexual assaults in opposition to detainees, together with in an in-depth NCS investigation in November 2022, calling them “false” and “baseless.”
Mohammadi has two kids, teenage twins Kiana and Ali Rahmani, whom she shares along with her husband, Taghi Rahmani. Her kids accepted the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo on her behalf.
Rahmani, who was himself held as a political prisoner for a complete of 14 years, met Mohammadi when she attended his underground modern historical past courses in 1995, he says. He beforehand informed NCS how his spouse has an “endless energy for freedom and human rights.”
Meanwhile, her son Ali informed NCS he’s “really proud” of his mom. “She was not always with us, but whenever she was, she took good care of us,” he stated in 2023. “She was a good mom and still is. … I have accepted this kind of life now. Any suffering that I have to endure does not matter.”
Correction:
A earlier model of this text mischaracterized Narges Mohammadi’s occupation. She is a human rights activist.