Iranians are suffering as economic misery and internal repression leave “no room for people to breathe” after 1½ years of wars and ongoing U.S. sanctions, the country’s most prominent human rights activist has told the Associated Press.
Narges Mohammadi, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2023, was temporarily released from prison for medical reasons this year after falling unconscious and being transferred to a hospital.
Her memoir, titled “A Woman Never Stops Fighting,” was written behind bars, with parts of it smuggled out by fellow inmates. Editions in French, German and nine other languages are being released this month. The English and Persian editions are to be released next year.
In an interview conducted Friday by AP from outside Iran, Mohammadi said Iranians are grappling with multiple crises stemming from the war and deepening economic pressure.
“It’s the people who are paying an extremely heavy price,” she said.
But she said many Iranians continue to quietly defy their leaders, a change she traces to the 2022 protests over the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman who died in a hospital after being detained for violating authorities’ strict Islamic dress code.
The release of Mohammadi’s book this month coincides with the anniversary of Amini’s death to honor her memory, her representatives said. The English and Persian editions are to be released next September for the same reason.
“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 said government repression has intensified, but that many in a new younger generation “know their rights” and were standing firm. “And that gives us reason for hope.”
AP agreed not to ask Mohammadi specific questions about the political situation and leadership in Iran, because of concerns for her safety, though she commented generally about the cost of war.
Detention was ‘life-threatening’
Mohammadi, 54, who has been jailed repeatedly over decades of advocating for human rights and was behind bars when she was awarded the Nobel Prize, described her most recent arrest, detention and health.
She said she was severely beaten by security forces when detained in December, in the northeastern city of Mashhad. She and a group of activists were attending a memorial ceremony for human rights lawyer Khosrow Alikordi, who was found dead in his office. She was arrested while giving a speech. She was sentenced to 16 years and more than a 100 lashes for attending that rally. She has not been flogged but spent long periods in solitary confinement.
“My detention was really life-threatening,” she said. “My head was severely hurt because most of the hits were to my head, and despite being in that condition, they kept me for two months in solitary confinement during which my condition was really concerning.”
She lost consciousness May 1 and was transferred to a hospital. She was released on bail nearly 10 days later and transferred to a hospital in Tehran, where she remained for two more weeks.
She smuggled out fragments of her memoir, which she started writing in 2019 during a stint in Iran’s notorious Evin prison in Tehran, where many political prisoners are held. She lost her handwritten notes that year when they moved her to another site.
This time, “with the help of fellow inmates, we got a few pages out, a few pages at a time,” she said. “If it weren’t for them, I couldn’t have done it.”
As for her health, “I am recovering,” Mohammadi said.
Other women who inspired her
Mohammadi took inspiration from other women’s stories growing up, beginning with her mother.
“I tried to put an image to each of these — how these women really managed to change their world, their society, themselves, the next generation — make them aware, make them resist,” she said.
She also recalled “terrifying memories” from her childhood during the 1980s Iran-Iraq war and how she developed “a hatred for war.”
“I wasn’t more than a child when the Iran-Iraq war happened, but I remember a lot of the repression, repression of many political currents and forces, many executions that happened in the silence and darkness of Evin and prisons around the country,” she said.
She risks return to prison
She recalled her concern when she learned that Evin prison had been bombed last year during the 12-day war between Israel and Iran, a period when she was out of prison.
“At that moment, I felt that, in this country, we are at the intersection of injustice, discrimination, war, authoritarianism,” she said. “All of those are trampling on our people’s human rights.”
Mohammadi has been handed down sentences totaling 44 years. She already has spent 10 years in prison, including 161 days in solitary confinement. She has been banned from traveling abroad since 2009 and is unable to join her husband and two children who live in exile in France.
“My sentence is currently suspended, and I must return whenever the judiciary issues the order,” Mohammadi later said in a text message shared by her team.
Radjy writes for the Associated Press.
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