Exclusive: Nobel laureate Narges Mohammadi on hunger strike in detention in Iran, foundation says

By Jomana Karadsheh, Nadeen Ebrahim, CNN

(CNN) — Nobel Peace Prize laureate Narges Mohammadi is on hunger strike whilst being held in detention by Iranian authorities, according to a statement from her foundation.

In the statement shared exclusively with CNN, the Paris-based foundation, which is run by her family, says it received credible information that Mohammadi began her strike on Monday “to protest her unlawful detention and the dire conditions in which she is being held, realities faced by numerous political prisoners currently held in Iran.”

Ali Rahmani, Mohammadi’s son, said in a statement that he was “deeply worried” about his mother and everyone else detained by the regime.

“What is happening in our country is a crime against humanity,” Rahmani said, adding that before her arrest, his mother was “calling for solidarity, unity, and peace.”

Mohammadi was arrested in December by security and police forces during a memorial ceremony for Khosrow Alikordi, a lawyer and human rights activist who was found dead in his office.

She was arrested in Mashhad, Iran’s second-largest city.

The foundation said that due to Mohammadi’s medical history, which includes heart attacks, chest pain, high blood pressure, as well as spinal disc issues and other illnesses, “her continued detention is extremely dangerous and a violation of human rights laws.”

The Nobel Peace Prize laureate has also been restricted access to her family, the Foundation said, and has only had one phone call with her brother on December 14, with no contact since then.

Taghi Rahmani, Mohammadi’s husband, said authorities were demanding that when his wife make calls, she says all is well. “But the Narges we know refuses to submit to such pressure; she insists on speaking her truth,” he said.

“They also know that if she is released, she will immediately resume her activism, as she views rejoining the people her duty,” Taghi added. “Narges will never be silenced, and it is her voice that they fear most.”

A regime critic

One of Iran’s most prominent human rights activists, Mohammadi won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2023.

She has spent most of the past two decades as an inmate of Tehran’s Evin prison — notorious for detaining critics of the regime.

In December 2024, Iranian authorities suspended her prison term for three weeks to allow her to recover from a surgery to remove part of a bone in her lower right leg, where doctors had discovered a lesion suspected of being cancerous.

Mohammadi was expected to return to prison soon afterward, but she had remained on furlough until December’s arrest. She has been sentenced to multiple prison terms totaling 36 years on charges that include acting against national security and spreading propaganda, according to the Narges Foundation.

Supporters say she’s a political prisoner, detained for working to advance women’s rights and democracy.

“In these difficult days for our country, Iran, we ask human rights organizations, activists, and the global community to think of the political prisoners in detention centers and put practical actions on the agenda to save their lives,” the Foundation said Wednesday.

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