Nobel Peace Prize winner Narges Mohammadi remains in prison along with many women’s rights activists
13/10/2023
Update: Journalists Niloofar Hamedi and Elahe Mohammadi were sentenced to 13 and 12 years in prison in Iran respectively on several charges. Hamedi received seven years in prison and Mohammadi received six years in prison for “collaborating with the hostile US government”. They also received an additional five years in prison for “acting against the national security” and a year for “propaganda”.
Armita Geravand is now reported to be brain-dead after her beating.
The Gulf Centre for Human Rights (GCHR) welcomes the decision to award the Nobel Peace Prize for 2023 to Iranian woman human rights defender Narges Mohammadi, who remains in prison in Iran along with many other women’s rights defenders. GCHR calls for the release of Mohammadi and all those imprisoned for defending women’s rights, and an end to repressive laws used to control women.
The Norwegian Nobel Committee said it gave the Peace Prize to Mohammadi, 51 years old, “for her fight against the oppression of women in Iran and her fight to promote human rights and freedom for all. Her brave struggle has come with tremendous personal costs. Altogether, the regime has arrested her 13 times, convicted her five times, and sentenced her to a total of 31 years in prison and 154 lashes.”
In 2015, Mohammadi was imprisoned for her protests against the death penalty but released for health reasons in October 2020 before being arrested again on 16 November 2021, with a brief medical furlough from February to April 2022. The Nobel Committee said, “Upon her return to prison, she began opposing the regime’s systematic use of torture and sexualised violence against political prisoners, especially women, that is practised in Iranian prisons.”
She has not been silenced even in prison, and is one of the courageous women prisoners of conscience who staged a sit-ininside Evin Prison on 15 September, a day ahead of the anniversary of the death in custody of 22-year-old Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini (also known as Jina Amini). Among other protesters in Evin Prison were Sepideh Qolian, Golrokh Iraee, Azadeh Abedini, Shakila Monfared, Mahboubeh Rezaee and Vida Rabani.
In an article smuggled out of prison and published by the New York Times on 16 September, Mohammadi wrote, “The more of us they lock up, the stronger we become.”
On 16 September 2022, Amini died after being detained in Tehran by the Iranian morality police for allegedly wearing an “improper” hijab. Her death sparked widespread protests across Iran under the banner of #WomanLifeFreedom (ZanZendegiAzadi), which have been met with a severe crackdown from the authorities.
On 30 August 2023, GCHR condemned the detention of at least 22 activists, the majority of them women. The latest round of detentions began on 30 July 2023. Activists are being held on charges of “spreading propaganda against the state” and “assembly and collusion against national security.” They include prominent women’s rights activists, lawyers and journalists.
The Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) reported that security forces violently attacked peaceful protesters calling for information about their detained loved ones in Tehran, and at least one person was shot in Saqqez during protests on 16 September 2023. Fardin Jafari remains in critical condition. Prominent actress Hanieh Tavassoli was arrested for a social media post with Mahsa Amini’s photo.
Mahsa Amini’s father, Amjad Amini, was briefly detained on the anniversary of her death, after being warned not to protest.
Then on 01 October 2023, 16-year-old Armita Geravand (pictured above) was pulled unconscious out of a Tehran metro car by four people, as shown in video footage widely circulated on social media. The authorities claimed she had low blood pressure and fell and hit her head, but witnesses say she was violently beaten by a state security unit for not wearing hijab. She is being treated at the moment in the intensive care unit of the military’s Fajr Air Force Hospital within a high-security section that has been sealed off to visitors by state security agents.
According to news reports, on 03 October 2023, Shargh newspaper reporter Maryam Lotfi was briefly detained after trying to interview Geravand’s mother, who was then also reportedly arrested on 04 October and taken to an unknown location.
In response to the protests since Amini’s death, Iran has increased policing of women. In August 2023, the Tehran municipality hired 400 officers to enforce the wearing of hijab in public, including in the metro.
Two women journalists who were arrested in September 2022 after they reported on Amini’s death, Niloofar Hamedi and Elahe Mohammadi, were on trial in July 2023 on charges of “propaganda against the system and conspiracy to act against national security” that could carry the death penalty.
Recommendations
The Gulf Centre for Human Rights (GCHR) calls on the Iranian authorities to:
- Immediately and unconditionally release all journalists and human rights defenders in prison in Iran;
- Respect women’s rights and allow women to choose whether or not to wear hijab, including by ceasing the imprisonment of women who refuse to wear hijab;
- Stop attacking and arresting peaceful protesters; and
- Respect the rights to freedom of expression and assembly.
