Narges Mohammadi, the Nobel peace prize laureate, requires months of medical care after her health deteriorated severely in Iranian prisons, according to a smuggled memoir. The writings, obtained exclusively by this publication, detail beatings, neglect, and solitary confinement during her numerous imprisonments.
Mohammadi, arrested 14 times for activism, wrote of the 'torture' of solitary confinement and systematic medical neglect. 'There is no hardship worse than illness combined with imprisonment,' she wrote. 'Authoritarian regimes do not always need an executioner's rope. Sometimes, they simply wait for the human body to fail.'
Her health hit a crisis point this year, with her weight dropping by over 20kg. She was found unconscious after an apparent heart attack in March. Despite requests from family and doctors, she was denied proper medical treatment for weeks. She was released on bail on Sunday to receive care in Tehran but remains in critical condition.
Her family have described her continued detention and refusal of medical care as a 'slow execution'. The memoir, A Woman Never Stops Fighting, will be published in September. It covers her early life, activism, and years in prison for advancing women's rights and opposing the death penalty.
Mohammadi has been sentenced to 44 years in prison and 154 lashes. She was awarded the Nobel peace prize in 2023 while imprisoned during the Women, Life, Freedom protests. She was temporarily released in December 2024 but violently rearrested a year later and sentenced to more prison time in February.
