Nobel Laureate Narges Mohammadi Details Prison Abuse Ahead of Memoir Release

In a rare interview granted while on temporary medical leave, Nobel peace laureate Narges Mohammadi described how she continued to write inside Tehran’s Evin prison despite severe beatings and confiscations. She explained that friends attempted to smuggle out only three sheets of paper before security seized them, and that larger caches of her notebooks were lost after a brutal beating and transfer to another facility. Mohammadi said the memoir, *A Woman Never Stops Fighting*, will debut this month in several European countries and aims to expose the methods used by prison officials to torture detainees.

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Mohammadi, a leading Iranian human-rights activist, has spent roughly two decades behind bars, separated from her children. Her foundation reports a cumulative sentence of more than 44 years and 154 lashes for her activism. During her most recent incarceration from December to May, she endured repeated beatings with wooden sticks, hair-pulling, and kicks to the pelvis and genital area, leaving open wounds on her head. She also spent two months in solitary confinement without phone calls, family visits, or legal counsel.

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• Sentence: > 44 years imprisonment, 154 lashes.

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• Weight loss during detention: 20 kg (? 44 lb).

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• Hospitalization: 18 days for heart complications linked to chronic stress.

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The Norwegian Nobel Committee, through chair Jørgen Watne Frydnes, confirmed “credible reports” of the beatings and described the conditions as “life-threatening mistreatment.” The committee highlighted that solitary confinement is used by the Iranian government as a tool to “destroy a person” rather than merely to punish. Iran’s semi-official news agency Tasnim rejected claims that Mohammadi’s health had deteriorated, downplaying the allegations of mistreatment. Iranian officials and state media have similarly minimized her accusations, despite eyewitness accounts and international outcry.

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• “One of my friends was trying to take out just three sheets of paper on a visiting day, but the prison security forces confiscated them from her,” — Narges Mohammadi

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• “I was held in solitary confinement for two months in that same condition, without being allowed to make phone calls or see my family or even my lawyers,” — Narges Mohammadi

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• “If you look at the streets of Tehran, and even at cities across the country, you can see how courageously women are standing tall in the streets,” — Narges Mohammadi

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These statements and the forthcoming memoir underscore the personal cost of dissent in Iran and the broader struggle of women activists confronting state repression.

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