Narges Mohammadi is a prominent Iranian woman human rights defender, engineer, and columnist. She is the winner of the 2023 Nobel Peace Prize for her work in defending human rights. According to the Norwegian Nobel Committee, “the regime has arrested her 13 times, convicted her five times, and sentenced her to a total of 31 years in prison and 154 lashes.” She is currently in prison for her opposition to the death penalty. Even from within prison, she has continued to organise and participate in protests, such as a sit-in with other women prisoners of conscience on 15 September 2023. In an article she managed to have smuggled out of prison to publish in the New York Times on the one year anniversary of Mahsa Amini’s death, Mohammadi wrote, “The more of us they lock up, the stronger we become.”

In June 2024, UN Special Rapporteurs raised concerns about Iran’s treatment of human rights defenders, particularly the imprisonment of Nobel laureate Narges Mohammadi and other prominent activists.

In June 2024, Mohammadi was sentenced to an additional year in prison by Branch 29 of the Tehran Revolutionary Court, citing her support for the “Woman, Life, Freedom” protests, her letters to Swedish and Norwegian lawmakers, and her criticism of Iranian authorities’ treatment of women in detention. She has also faced ongoing denial of medical care due to her refusal to wear the compulsory hijab during treatment, further jeopardising her health. Mohammadi, who was first imprisoned in 2011, has been sentenced to a cumulative 36 years in prison and 154 lashes over her activism. The international #FreeNarges coalition, which includes Front Line Defenders, PEN America and Reporters Without Borders, has intensified efforts to bring global attention to her case​.

She was temporarily released on 04 December 2024 on medical leave but authorities pressured her to return to prison. Mohammadi refused to return to Evin prison on 25 December 2024, when the temporary suspension ended. 

On 12 December 2025, Mohammadi was violently arrested by plainclothes security forces in Mashhad while attending the seventh-day memorial ceremony for the late lawyer Khosrow Alikordi. She was subsequently sentenced to seven years and six months in prison, following a summary trial before the Mashhad Revolutionary Court on 07 February 2026.