Iranian Nobel Peace Prize laureate Narges Mohammadi said citizens are shouldering an intense economic and human toll following 18 months of ongoing wars and persistent U.S. sanctions, leaving the population with virtually no room to breathe amid severe internal repression.
In an interview conducted Friday from outside Iran by The Associated Press, the 54-year-old activist detailed the multifaceted crises gripping the country. Mohammadi, who received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2023 while imprisoned, was temporarily released on bail earlier this year following a medical emergency that left her unconscious and hospitalized.
“It’s the people who are paying an extremely heavy price,” Mohammadi told the AP, highlighting the convergence of war-driven economic pressures and tightening government controls.
Despite intensifying crackdowns, Mohammadi noted that many Iranians continue quietly resisting authorities. She traced this persistent defiance back to the widespread 2022 protests sparked by the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman who died after being detained by the morality police for allegedly violating the strict Islamic dress code.
The timing of Mohammadi’s memoir release—titled “A Woman Never Stops Fighting”—coincides with the anniversary of Amini’s death to honor her memory, according to the activist’s representatives. While French, German, and nine other foreign-language editions are arriving this month, the English and Farsi versions are scheduled for publication next year.
“If you go out into the streets, you see a wave of resistance among the people, a wave of awareness, and their determination to stand up for their rights,” Mohammadi said. She added that a new younger generation understands its legal standing and refuses to back down, offering a clear reason for hope.
Detention and Memoir Smuggled from Evin Prison
Reflecting on her own recent imprisonment, Mohammadi described a severe escalation in state hostility. She recounted being violently beaten by security forces in December in the northeastern city of Mashhad, where she and fellow activists had gathered to attend a memorial for human rights lawyer Khosrow Alikordi, who was found dead in his office.
Mohammadi was arrested while delivering a public speech at the gathering and was subsequently sentenced to 16 years in prison alongside more than 100 lashes. While she has not been flogged, she endured extensive periods of solitary confinement.
“My detention was really life-threatening,” Mohammadi said, noting that the blows targeted her head primarily. Despite her injuries, authorities kept her isolated for two months under concerning conditions before she ultimately lost consciousness on May 1.
Following her collapse, she was transferred from custody to a hospital. She was released on bail nearly ten days later and spent an additional two weeks recovering in a Tehran medical facility.
During her earlier confinement in Tehran’s notorious Evin prison—where she began drafting her book in 2019 before losing her handwritten notes during a facility transfer—Mohammadi relied on fellow detainees to preserve her latest manuscript. Inmates smuggled the memoir out page by page. “If it weren’t for them, I couldn’t have done it,” she said.
Due to safety concerns surrounding her precarious legal status and freedom outside the country, interviewers agreed not to press Mohammadi on specific political leadership dynamics inside Iran, focusing instead on the broader human cost of the ongoing conflicts and her personal recovery.
