A lawyer representing Narges Mohammadi, an imprisoned Iranian human rights activist, announced that the government extended her prison sentence by an additional seven-and-a-half years on Saturday. This decision is part of a broader crackdown on dissent following recent mass protests throughout the country.
Her lawyer, Mostafa Nili, shared on social media that Mohammadi received a six-year sentence for “gathering and collusion” and an extra one-and-a-half years for propaganda, along with a two-year travel ban.
Nili further explained that Mohammadi was also sentenced to two years of “internal exile,” meaning she won’t be allowed to leave Khosuf after her eventual release.
At 53, Mohammadi is set to receive the 2023 Nobel Peace Prize for her ongoing fight against the oppression of women and her advocacy for human rights in Iran.
Mohammadi, who had been imprisoned in the notorious Evin prison, was subjected to severe human rights violations. She was jailed in 2021 on charges linked to her activism, including her nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize, which the regime used as evidence against her. Ironically, she didn’t win the prize in 2021 but received it two years later.
Despite her incarceration, Mohammadi has remained an intellectual figure for the “Women, Life, Freedom” movement, which emerged after the death of Mahsa Amini, a young Kurdish woman, at the hands of Iran’s morality police for not wearing her headscarf correctly.
In December 2024, she was granted medical leave due to severe health issues stemming from her time in Evin prison. The Nobel Committee and other human rights advocates advocated for her leave to be made permanent, as she was likely suffering from bone cancer and had experienced several heart attacks during an emergency surgery in 2022.
When she left the prison, she was reportedly upbeat, walking out while singing the protest anthem, “Women, Life, Freedom.”
However, her freedom was short-lived. Just over three weeks later, she was re-arrested while attending a memorial for human rights lawyer Khosro Alikordi in December 2025. According to the Narges Foundation, she faced violence during her detention, with “plainclothes personnel” hitting her on the head and neck with a baton.
While the regime vaguely accused her of making inflammatory comments about Alikordi’s death, which was officially attributed to a heart attack, many human rights activists suspect foul play by the Iranian authorities.
Last week, Mohammadi initiated a six-day hunger strike in protest of her unlawful detention. Just as she was concluding her strike, she was unexpectedly taken to trial in Mashhad on charges of “collusion” and “propaganda” connected to foreign powers, which resulted in an additional seven-and-a-half years being added to her already lengthy 13-year sentence from 2021.
Her husband, Taghi Rahmani, indicated that Mohammadi had no legal representation during the surprise trial and chose not to defend herself, deeming the judiciary illegitimate and the trial a “farce.” Rahmani noted that she likely felt coerced to attend but remained silent throughout the proceedings, offering no statements or signing any documents.
