The renowned human rights activist and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Narges Mohammadi has been sentenced to a further year in the notorious Evin Prison by the 29th branch of Tehran Revolutionary Court, for “propaganda activity against the regime.” This verdict increases her total prison sentence to 13 years and 3 months, as well as 154 lashes.
Mohammadi’s lawyer Mustafa Nili posted on X, formerly Twitter, that the new sentence was issued on June 18, following a court hearing that Mohammadi did not attend. He stated that the new charges stem from Mohammadi’s statements regarding the beating and sexual abuse of journalist and student activist Dina Qalibaf by the morality police in Tehran, her letters calling for a boycott of the Iranian parliamentary elections, and her correspondence with the parliaments of Sweden and Norway.
In December 2023, Narges Mohammadi sent an open letter to the Norwegian Parliament urging global support for the Jin Jiyan Azadî (Woman, Life, Freedom) revolutionary movement. In a message to Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson in September 2023, she had described the trial in Sweden of Hamid Nouri, a former official of the Islamic Republic’s judiciary, as “one of the greatest symbols of justice for Iran.”
Hamid Nouri was arrested in Sweden and sentenced to life imprisonment in May 2022 for his role in the killing of Iranian political prisoners in the 1980s. However, on 14 June this year, the Islamic Republic announced that he was to return to Iran as the result of a prisoner exchange, and he returned to Iranian protection on 15 June.
In her letter to the Swedish Prime Minister, Mohammadi stressed the urgent need for democracy in Iran, calling for an end to the repressive regime of the Islamic Republic. She advocated the setting up of democratic institutions, a guarantee of human rights and the establishment of a robust civil society.
In March 2024, Mohammadi criticised the elections for the Islamic Council and the Assembly of Experts as a “sham” and argued that boycotting these elections was a moral and political obligation for those seeking freedom and justice in Iran. She stressed that the fight against the compulsory hijab was part of a larger struggle against religious tyranny.
She called for a boycott of the 12th Islamic Council elections on 1 March, describing the elections as “staged” and “orchestrated”.
Previously, Mohammadi had been sentenced to 12 years and 3 months in prison, 154 lashes, four months of street sweeping, two years of a travel ban, along with other political and social restrictions across five separate convictions by the judiciary of the Islamic Republic. She has spent 10 of the last 14 years in prison.
Observers of Iran’s affairs assert that the recent sentencing of Narges Mohammadi and the 21-year imprisonment of Jina Modares Gorji highlight Iran’s systematic suppression of women’s demands.
