Imprisoned Nobel laureate Narges Mohammadi’s health worsening, husband says

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The health of imprisoned Iranian Nobel Peace Prize laureate Narges Mohammadi is worsening, her husband Taghi Rahmani told The Associated Press on Friday. Speaking at his home in Paris, Rahmani said he has not been able to speak with his wife since her arrest in mid-December and that her condition has deteriorated after she was allegedly beaten during the events surrounding her detention.

Rahmani said Mohammadi was arrested on Dec. 12 during a visit to the eastern Iranian city of Mashhad. He said she received only one brief phone call to her brother and has spoken to her lawyer once, after she was handed a new prison sentence earlier this week. Rahmani said she was allowed that lawyer contact even though he has lived in exile since 2012 and she remains in Tehran.

Mohammadi’s arrest came as nationwide protests spread across Iran, culminating in large marches by hundreds of thousands from Jan. 8 to Jan. 9 that were later crushed in what rights groups have described as a heavy government crackdown. Rights groups have counted more than 7,000 dead in connection with the unrest, while Iran’s government has put the death toll at more than 3,100 dead, according to the AP report.

Rahmani said Mohammadi, 53, started a hunger strike in prison on Feb. 2. He said that several days later, a court sentenced her to more than seven additional years in prison, after she had already been serving a sentence of 13 years and nine months on charges of collusion against state security and propaganda against Iran’s government.

He said authorities did not immediately acknowledge the additional sentence. Rahmani also said it was not clear whether Mohammadi had ended her hunger strike after she was sentenced. Mohammadi’s supporters say she has suffered multiple heart attacks in prison before undergoing emergency surgery in 2022, and they also said her medical situation worsened while she was detained; her lawyer in late 2024 said doctors found a bone lesion they feared could be cancerous, which was later removed.

Rahmani tied the deterioration in Mohammadi’s condition to an assault by security forces during a memorial in Mashhad. He said his last conversation with her was the night before she left for Mashhad, when she was preparing to attend a memorial for a human rights lawyer who had died the previous week under unclear circumstances.

At the memorial, Rahmani said plainclothes members of the security forces began to assault Mohammadi before she finished her speech. He said multiple men hit and kicked her in her side, head and neck. Details about her deteriorating condition, Rahmani said, came from released detainees who had been held alongside her in Mashhad.

“Collectively this information shows her physical condition is very severe because of the hits she got, her bruised body,” Rahmani told AP. He said her heart condition had worsened as well, and said three of her four coronary arteries were constricted and she had pulmonary problems.

“The Nobel committee condemned the ‘ongoing life-threatening mistreatment’ of Mohammadi,” in a statement issued Wednesday, according to the AP report. The account of her health worsening adds to scrutiny of the conditions of custody for political detainees in Iran, especially as she remains incarcerated despite winning the Nobel Peace Prize in 2023 while she was already in prison.

Rahmani also described Mohammadi’s legal situation following her arrest and sentencing. He said her new sentence was handed down Saturday by a Revolutionary Court in Mashhad and that her lawyer in Iran, Mostafa Nili, posted about the ruling on X. Rahmani said Nili was not allowed to attend the court sentencing, but that Mohammadi was able to contact him afterward, which he said was her first contact with a lawyer since her arrest.

In a separate portion of the AP report, Rahmani also discussed the wider context of Iran’s crackdown and the potential impact of U.S. actions. He said he opposes any attack by an outside country on Iran and argued that he did not believe U.S. President Donald Trump wanted to help protesters. Rahmani said Trump “won’t bring democracy for us,” and he suggested any political transition to democracy must come from within Iran, adding that people “want a republic” and “want democracy.”