Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Narges Mohammadi in Critical Condition After Heart Attack

Narges Mohammadi, the Iranian human rights activist who received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2023, is in critical condition in Zanjan prison in northern Iran following a heart attack she suffered in late March 2026, her family and foundation announced on Wednesday. Her family members and legal team were permitted a second in-person visit on Saturday, during which they observed clear signs of deterioration in her general condition. The Mohammadi Foundation stated that her physical state was described as critical and warned that the continuation of her current situation poses an immediate and irreversible threat to her life. Mohammadi, 53, has been held in Zanjan since February 2026, when she was transferred there without prior notice following her arrest in December 2025 in the eastern city of Mashhad. The Nobel committee recognized her more than two decades of activism against the oppression of women and the death penalty in Iran when it awarded her the prize, which her two children accepted on her behalf in Oslo.

Brother reports death threats, denied medication in Zanjan cell Mohammadi's brother, Hamidreza Mohammadi, who lives in Norway, described her deteriorating physical state in detail, saying she has become extremely weak and has lost a significant amount of weight since her heart attack. „The continuation of this situation poses an immediate and irreversible threat to the life of Narges Mohammadi” — Mohammadi Foundation via RFI Hamidreza Mohammadi also reported that his sister is being held in a cell with prisoners accused of murder and has repeatedly received death threats from some of them. He stated that Mohammadi is being denied medication and treatment, compounding the inadequate medical care that her supporters have raised concerns about in the past, including prior demands for urgent cardiological care. At the end of March, after a first visit by her lawyers and a family member, her circle of supporters reported that the heart attack she had suffered appeared to have been inadequately treated. Inmates reportedly found Mohammadi unconscious in her cell on March 24, according to a statement from supporters cited by Der Tagesspiegel. The prison in Zanjan was also subjected to bombardment during the US-Israeli military campaign against Iran that began on February 28, 2026, further complicating her situation and limiting communication with her family.

Fresh sentence adds six years as protests were crushed across Iran In February 2026, an Iranian court sentenced Mohammadi to an additional six years in prison on charges of endangering national security and a further one and a half years for propaganda against Iran's Islamic system, according to her lawyer. A two-year travel ban was also imposed on her. She responded to her detention conditions by carrying out a hunger strike of nearly one week, demanding the right to phone calls. Mohammadi had been arrested on December 12, 2025, in Mashhad after she criticized the Iranian clerical authorities during a funeral ceremony for a lawyer who had previously been found dead. Her arrest came before nationwide protests broke out at the end of December 2025, a movement that reached its peak in January 2026 when authorities launched a crackdown that, according to activists, left thousands dead. In December 2024, Mohammadi had been temporarily released from Evin Prison in Tehran for health reasons, though it was emphasized at the time that the release was only temporary and that she was not permitted to leave Iran.

Twenty-five years of imprisonment, children unseen since 2015 Mohammadi has been repeatedly tried and imprisoned over the past 25 years for her activism against the mandatory headscarf and the death penalty in Iran, spending the majority of the past decade behind bars. She has not seen her two children, who live in Paris, since 2015. The current imprisonment marks her fourteenth arrest, according to Süddeutsche Zeitung. Her case has drawn international attention as a symbol of the Iranian state's treatment of human rights defenders, particularly women who oppose compulsory dress codes and capital punishment.

Narges Mohammadi has been a prominent figure in Iranian civil society for more than two decades, repeatedly imprisoned for her activism. She was born on April 21, 1972. The Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to her in 2023 while she remained in detention, and her children accepted the prize in Oslo on her behalf. She was previously held in Evin Prison in Tehran, one of Iran's most notorious detention facilities, before being temporarily released in December 2024 for health reasons. Her case has been a recurring subject of international human rights advocacy, with organizations repeatedly calling for her unconditional release.

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