Narges Mohammadi

Narges Mohammadi (born 21 April 1972) is an Iranian human rights activist and Nobel laureate.

She is the vice president of the Defenders of Human Rights Center (DHRC), headed by her fellow Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Shirin Ebadi.

Mohammadi has been a vocal proponent of mass feminist civil disobedience against the hijab in Iran and a vocal critic of the hijab and Chastity program of 2023.

Mohammadi was born on 21 April 1972 in Zanjan, Iran to an Iranian Azerbaijani family and grew up in Karaj and the Kurdish cities of Qorveh, and Oshnaviyeh.

She attended Qazvin International University, receiving a degree in physics, and became a professional engineer.

During her university career, she wrote articles supporting women's rights in the student newspaper and was arrested at two meetings of the political student group Tashakkol Daaneshjuyi Roshangaraan ("Enlightened Student Group").

She was also active in a mountain climbing group but was later banned from joining climbs due to her political activities.

Mohammadi went on to work as a journalist for several reformist newspapers and published a book of political essays titled The reforms, the Strategy and the Tactics.

As other thinkers exploring the idea of Neo-Shariatism in the 1990s, they advanced a view of governance that “rejected the concept of an Islamic state and advocated (instead) a secular, or urfi, democracy”.

Mohammadi was first arrested in 1998 for her criticisms of the Iranian government and spent a year in prison.

In 1999, she married fellow pro-reform journalist Taghi Rahmani, who was soon arrested for the first time.

In 2003, she joined the Defenders of Human Rights Center (DHRC), headed by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Shirin Ebadi; she later became the organization's vice president.

In April 2010, she was summoned to the Islamic Revolutionary Court for her membership in the DHRC.

She was briefly released on a US$50,000 bail but re-arrested several days later and detained at Evin Prison.

Mohammadi's health declined while in custody, and she developed an epilepsy-like disease, causing her to periodically lose muscle control.

After a month, she was released and allowed to seek medical treatment.

In July 2011, Mohammadi was prosecuted again and found guilty of "acting against the national security, membership of the DHRC and propaganda against the regime."

In September, she was sentenced to 11 years' imprisonment.

Mohammadi stated that she had learned of the verdict only through her lawyers and had been "given an unprecedented 23-page judgement issued by the court in which they repeatedly likened my human rights activities to attempts to topple the regime."

Rahmani moved to France in 2012 after serving 14 years of prison sentences, while Mohammadi remained to continue her human rights work.

Mohammadi and Rahmani have twin children.

In March 2012, the sentence was upheld by an appeals court, though it was reduced to six years.

On 26 April, she was arrested to begin her sentence.

The sentence was protested by the British Foreign Office, which called it "another sad example of the Iranian authorities' attempts to silence brave human rights defenders."

Amnesty International designated her a prisoner of conscience and called for her immediate release.

Reporters Without Borders issued an appeal on Mohammadi's behalf on the ninth anniversary of photographer Zahra Kazemi's death in Evin Prison, stating that Mohammadi was a prisoner whose life was "in particular danger."

In July 2012, an international group of lawmakers called for her release, including US Senator Mark Kirk, former Canadian Attorney General Irwin Cotler, UK MP Denis MacShane, Australian MP Michael Danby, Italian MP Fiamma Nirenstein, and Lithuanian MP Emanuelis Zingeris.

On 31 July 2012, Mohammadi was released from prison.

On 31 October 2014, Mohammadi made a speech at the gravesite of Sattar Beheshti, stating, "How is it that the Parliament Members are suggesting a Plan for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, but nobody spoke up two years ago when an innocent human being by the name of Sattar Beheshti died under torture in the hands of his interrogator?"

The video of her speech quickly went viral on social media networks, resulting in Evin Prison court summoning her."In the summons I received on 5 November 2014, it is stated that I must turn myself in 'for charges', but there is no further explanation about these charges."

- Narges Mohammadi

Branch 15 of the Revolutionary Court sentenced her to ten years' imprisonment on the charge of "founding an illegal group" in reference to Legam (the Campaign for Step by Step Abolition of the Death Penalty), five years for "assembly and collusion against national security," a year for "propaganda against the system" for her interviews with international media and her March 2014 meeting with the EU's then High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Catherine Ashton.

On 5 May 2015, Mohammadi was once again arrested on the basis of new charges.

In May 2016, she was sentenced in Tehran to 16 years' imprisonment for establishing and running "a human rights movement that campaigns for the abolition of the death penalty."

In January 2019, Mohammadi began a hunger strike with the detained British-Iranian citizen Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe in Evin Prison to protest being denied access to medical care.

She was released in 2020 but sent back to prison in 2021, where she has since given reports of the abuse and solitary confinement of detained women.

In October 2023, while in prison, she was awarded the 2023 Nobel Peace Prize "for her fight against the oppression of women in Iran and her fight to promote human rights and freedom for all."

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Iran condemned the decision.

In July 2020, she showed symptoms of a COVID-19 infection, from which she appeared to have recovered by August.

On 8 October 2020, Mohammadi was released from prison.