The Friday arrest of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Narges Mohammadi is a vivid reminder of the unsubtle inhumanity of the thugs in Teheran. Mohammadi, imprisoned for more than a decade in the notorious Evin Prison before being freed last year for medical reasons, was detained during a funeral for another human rights activist: the lawyer Khosrow Alikordi.
Alikordi was recently found dead in his office, and the government quickly blamed a “heart attack.” Understandably, Iranian human rights activists reacted with skepticism and demanded more transparency about his death, which is what prompted the latest crackdown. Several other activists were also reportedly arrested.
Weeks before his goons beat Mohammadi’s legs with a club and pulled her hair at the funeral, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei wrote on X: “A woman is like a flower. A flower must be cared for and protected.” That’s rich coming from a regime that has murdered hundreds and imprisoned tens of thousands since protests demanding increased rights for women erupted three years ago.
Iran’s repression of its own people is getting worse. Teheran executed more than 1,000 people in the first nine months of 2025, the highest number in at least 15 years.
Khamenei is 86. The deaths in recent years of major figures such as Quds Force commander Qasem Soleimani and Khamenei protégé Ebrahim Raisi have thrown the senior ranks of the government into flux. Their proxy forces have been decimated and become a shell of their former selves. Israel and U.S. strikes over the summer rattled an already paranoid regime.
Iran increasingly depends on allies such as China and Russa. Iran’s president met Friday with Vladimir Putin. Tehran is also closely allied with Venezuela, where opposition leader María Corina Machado escaped from hiding this week so she could accept this year’s Nobel Peace Prize in Norway.
Iran’s leaders fear an open society more than anything. Activists like Mohammadi are a direct challenge to their authority. When protests erupt, they respond with murders, beatings, torture, imprisonment and detention. As the failed Islamist experiment drifts toward an uncertain denouement, this brutality may only accelerate. When formulating Iranian policy, and trying to contain its nuclear ambitions, it’s important to not forget the human beings who continue to suffer.
The post A reminder of Iran’s continuing brutality appeared first on Washington Post.
