The Norwegian Nobel Committee is calling on Iran to stop its physical abuse and life-threatening treatment of Nobel peace laureate Narges Mohammadi, who has been imprisoned since December.
The committee said it had received “credible reports” of “life-threatening mistreatment” of Mohammadi, an activist arrested by plain-clothes agents while peacefully attending the funeral of the late human rights lawyer and advocate Khosrow Alikordi.
Mohammadi has been beaten by wooden sticks and batons and dragged across the ground by her hair, tearing sections of her scalp and causing open wounds, the committee said.
Furthermore, she was repeatedly kicked in the genitals and pelvic region, leaving her unable to sit or move without severe pain and raising serious concerns of bone fracture, it said.
“The Committee is horrified by these acts, and reiterates that Ms. Mohammadi’s imprisonment is arbitrary and unjust,” committee Chair Jorgen Watne Frydnes said in a statement. “Her only ‘offence’ is the peaceful exercise of her fundamental rights – freedom of expression, association and assembly – in defence (sic) of women’s equality and human dignity.”
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An Iranian prosecutor at the time of the arrest told reporters that Mohammadi made provocative remarks at the memorial ceremony in the northeastern city of Mashhad and encouraged those present “to chant norm‑breaking slogans” and “disturb the peace,” Reuters reported.
Mohammadi, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2023, has spent much of the last two decades in Iran’s infamous Evin prison.
The committee is calling on Tehran to release Mohammadi and guarantee her access to medical care.
“Mohammadi’s ordeal is yet another grim example of the brutal repression that has followed the mass protests in Iran, where countless women and men have risked their lives to demand freedom, equality and basic human rights,” it said.
