Iran’s judiciary has sentenced activist and 2023 Nobel Peace Prize laureate Narges Mohammadi to 31 years in prison and 154 lashes in multiple cases and charges.

Iranian authorities have now released Mohammadi on a significant bail and transferred her to a hospital in Tehran for medical treatment, according to her support committee.

Who is Narges Mohammadi?

Narges Mohammadi is a prominent Iranian human rights defender, engineer, and columnist. She was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2023 for her work in defending human rights. According to the Norwegian Nobel Committee, she has been arrested 13 times by the Iranian regime, convicted five times, and sentenced to 31 years in prison and 154 lashes.

Even from prison, she continued to organize and participate in protests, including a sit-in she organized with other prisoners of conscience on September 15, 2023.

In an article smuggled from prison and published by the The New York Times Company on the first anniversary of Mahsa Amini’s death, Narges Mohammadi wrote: “The more of us there are in prison, the stronger we become.”

In June 2024, she was sentenced to an additional year in prison by Branch 29 of the Revolutionary Court in Tehran for supporting the “Women, Life, Freedom” protests, sending messages to Swedish and Norwegian legislators, and criticizing the Iranian authorities’ treatment of detained women.

She also faced ongoing denial of medical care because she refused to wear the mandatory hijab during treatment, which further jeopardized her health.

Mohammadi, who was first imprisoned in 2011, has been sentenced to 36 years in prison and 154 lashes for her activism. The international coalition #FreeNarges, which includes Front Line Defenders, PEN America, and Reporters Without Borders, has intensified efforts to draw global attention to her case.

The Iranian activist and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Narges Mohammadi

Temporary Release of Narges Mohammadi

Narges Mohammadi was temporarily released on December 4, 2024, on medical leave, but authorities pressured her to return to prison. She refused to return to Evin Prison on December 25, 2024, when her temporary suspension ended.

Later, she was arrested on December 12, 2025, by plainclothes security forces in the city of Mashhad while attending the seventh anniversary commemoration for the late lawyer Khosro Ali Kurdi, just a year after her release.

Witnesses reported that security forces used violence during her arrest. Narges Mohammadi was sentenced to seven years and six months in prison following a brief trial at the Revolutionary Court in Mashhad on February 7, 2026.