About

Narges Mohammadi was born in 1972 and graduated in applied physics from the International University in Qazvin. When she was a student, she and five other students founded an independent student organization called “Roshangaran”, which met with opposition and threats from the university and the governmental student organization. Not only did the Ministry of Science refuse to grant license to “Roshangaran”, but the insistence to continue their activities resulted in her being arrested twice. She also started a women’s mountain climbing group in the university.

Narges started journalism from 1996 by writing articles about student’s and women’s movement in Payam Hajar magazine, where she became a member of the editorial board. Publication of her articles in other newspapers led to her membership in the journalists’ union. After graduation, she founded an independence organization with a number of other graduates from the International University, Azad University and Medical University in Qazvin province. The Ministry of Interior refused granting license to the organization, but they continued their collective social and political activities. In addition, she continued mountain climbing and climbed most of the mountains in Iran, including Damavand, Alam Kooh, Dena, Shir Kooh, Shah Alborz and Taftan. In 1999, she married Taghi Rahmani, a political activist who had spent 11 years of his life in prison.

Together with a number of women intellectuals, Narges founded a women’s organization, to which the Ministry of Interior denied license to, due to the opposition of the Ministry of Information. She lost her job in 1999, which coincided with the mass seizure of the newspapers, but after passing her qualification exam in her field of study, she was able to work at Iran Engineering Inspection Company. She worked as an engineering inspector in large industrial projects, including the Petropars Project, but after nearly 10 years of work, she got fired from her job by the direct order from the Ministry of Information, due to her activities in the Human Rights Defenders Center.

Her activities for the release of the political prisoners and her fight against solitary confinement resulted in her arrest in 2001. Her first experience of solitary confinement was during this arrest, when she was held in the solitary cells of the Ishrat Abad barracks of the IRGC. Consequently, she was sentenced to one year in prison.

She became a member of the supervisory council of the Human Rights Defenders Center and continued to work in the research committee of Association for the Defense of Prisoners’ rights. In 2006, she gave birth to her twin children, Ali and Kiana.

She and her colleagues at the Human Rights Defenders Center established independent human rights institutions, including the Committee for the Defense of Free and Fair Elections, the Committee for Abolishing Death Penalty for Children, and the National Peace Council, which, with the membership of 82 political, social, civil, cultural, trade union and human rights leaders, is unique in the history of Iran.

She was arrested in 2010 and, after being held in solitary confinement, she was sentenced to 11 years in the preliminary court, which was later reduced to 6 years in the appeal court. She went to prison in 2012. After being released on bail, in continuation of her activities, she founded Women’s Citizenship Center, an independent women’s organization. Because of the widespread executions in this period, she started working in the organization “Abolishing Death Penalty Step by Step”, which eventually led to her arrest in 2014.

In 2016, she was tried in prison and sentenced to 16 years of prison, which was upheld in the appeal court. After her release on bail, she launched a campaign to stop solitary confinement and published two books and a documentary film. She was arrested again in 2021 and she has been in prison since.

Narges has been arrested a total of 13 times, has been tried 5 times, and has been sentenced to more than 32 years imprisonment and 154 lashes. Narges is a secular human rights activist striving for peace, democracy, freedom and equality.

In 2023, Narges won Nobel Peace Prize for her fight for women’s rights and human rights and freedom for all. Her twins, Ali and Kiana, received the prize on behalf of their mother who is still in prison.

Narges has been informed that her first trial after the Nobel ceremony will take place on December 19 in Branch 26 of the Revolutionary Court. Simultaneously, Security Court of district 33, following a request by the Ministry of Intelligence, has notified her that the execution of the prison sentence would take place outside Tehran.