Jailed Iranian Nobel laureate Narges Mohammadi says 'determined to continue fighting'

By: Marc Perelman

Iranian women's rights activist Narges Mohammadi gave an interview to FRANCE 24 while on temporary leave from Tehran's Evin prison. Despite nine trials and facing another 10 years in jail, she is determined to continue her fight for human rights in Iran. Mohammadi also said the "Woman, Life, Freedom" movement is still alive but has taken on "different forms".

Granted temporary leave from prison, Mohammadi spoke to FRANCE 24 from her home in Tehran. Despite being tired from a surgical operation, she assured us she is "doing well" psychologically.

After being tried nine times, she is currently on her tenth year in jail and will have to return to prison for another 10 years. She is currently detained in Tehran's Evin prison, in the political prisoners' wing.

During her time in Evin prison, Mohammadi said she was sent to solitary confinement three times, where "the conditions of detention are unbearable".

Mohammadi was also sent to solitary confinement in the military detention centre of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard. "They bring you there to inflict psychological and moral torture on you and to break you," she said.

During her detention, Mohammadi was not allowed out to visit her sick father in hospital. She was later not allowed to attend his funeral. She has also had difficulty communicating with her children, who live in exile. The guards would not allow her to talk to them on the phone. Mohammadi said she lives in hope of "one day" holding her children in her arms.

Mohammadi insisted that the Woman, Life, Freedom protest movement, sparked by the death of Mahsa Amini at the hands of the morality police in 2022, "is still alive" but has taken on "different forms".

She added that this shows Iranian people "are resisting". "You can see the level of this resistance everywhere in the country."

The activist also talked about the mandatory veil law imposed on Iranian women, calling it a "tool of domination" by the authorities. "If they can dominate half of society, this subjugation would allow them to bring all of society under their domination."

Although her Nobel Peace Prize has put a spotlight on her fight for human rights, the laureate admits that "in a country like Iran, with a repressive government like the Islamic Republic [...] winning the Nobel Peace Prize has made the situation more sensitive".

Mohammadi said she had been asked several times by the Iranian authorities to leave the country, but had refused. 

"I have no intention of leaving Iran. I am determined to continue fighting alongside the Iranian people."