Nobel Peace Prize laureate Narges Mohammadi is on hunger strike while being held in detention by Iranian authorities, in response to an announcement from her foundation.
In the assertion shared solely with NCS, the Paris-based foundation, which is run by her household, says it acquired credible data that Mohammadi started her strike on Monday “to protest her unlawful detention and the dire conditions in which she is being held, realities faced by numerous political prisoners currently held in Iran.”
Ali Rahmani, Mohammadi’s son, stated in an announcement that he was “deeply worried” about his mom and everybody else detained by the regime.
“What is happening in our country is a crime against humanity,” Rahmani stated, including that earlier than her arrest, his mom was “calling for solidarity, unity, and peace.”
Mohammadi was arrested in December by safety and police forces throughout a memorial ceremony for Khosrow Alikordi, a lawyer and human rights activist who was discovered useless in his workplace.
She was arrested in Mashhad, Iran’s second-largest metropolis.
The foundation stated that as a consequence of Mohammadi’s medical historical past, which incorporates coronary heart assaults, chest ache, hypertension, in addition to spinal disc points and different diseases, “her continued detention is extremely dangerous and a violation of human rights laws.”
The Nobel Peace Prize laureate has additionally been restricted entry to her household, the Foundation stated, and has solely had one cellphone name together with her brother on December 14, with no contact since then.
Taghi Rahmani, Mohammadi’s husband, stated authorities have been demanding that when his spouse make calls, she says all is nicely. “But the Narges we know refuses to submit to such pressure; she insists on speaking her truth,” he stated.
“They also know that if she is released, she will immediately resume her activism, as she views rejoining the people her duty,” Taghi added. “Narges will never be silenced, and it is her voice that they fear most.”
One of Iran’s most distinguished human rights activists, Mohammadi received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2023.
She has spent many of the previous twenty 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 get better from a surgical procedure to take away a part of a bone in her decrease proper leg, the place docs had found a lesion suspected of being cancerous.
Mohammadi was anticipated to return to jail quickly afterward, however she had remained on furlough till December’s arrest. She has been sentenced to a number of jail phrases totaling 36 years on prices that embrace performing in opposition to nationwide safety and spreading propaganda, in response to the Narges Foundation.
Supporters say she’s a political prisoner, detained for working to advance ladies’s rights and democracy.
“In these difficult days for our country, Iran, we ask human rights organizations, activists, and the global community to think of the political prisoners in detention centers and put practical actions on the agenda to save their lives,” the Foundation stated Wednesday.