Reihane Taravati/Middle East Images/AFP/Getty Images
Narges Mohammadi received the Nobel Prize for “her fight against the oppression of women in Iran and her fight to promote human rights and freedom for all.” She is shown in this photo from June 25, 2007.
CNN –
Jailed Iranian Nobel Peace Prize winner Narges Mohammadi has been sentenced to an additional 15 months in prison, Mohammadi's family said in a written statement sent to CNN on Monday.
Her family said she was accused of “spreading propaganda” against the Islamic Republic regime.
The 51-year-old human rights activist received the Nobel Prize in October for “her fight against the oppression of women in Iran and her fight to promote human rights and freedom for all.” This fight came at enormous personal cost – Mohammadi spent most of the last two decades in prison.
During her trial, she refused to attend the court proceedings or take part in the interrogation, the family said.
In addition to the additional 15 months in prison, the new sentence will see Mohammadi sentenced to “two years of exile outside Tehran and neighboring provinces,” according to her family.
Mohammadi was also given a two-year travel ban, “a two-year ban on membership in socio-political groups and a two-year ban on using a smartphone,” the statement added.
The latest conviction is Mohammadi's fifth conviction since 2021 and her third while in prison.
Mohammadi was already serving a prison sentence of ten years and nine months, accused of acts against national security and propaganda against the state. She was also sentenced to 154 lashes, a punishment not yet meted out by human rights organizations, as well as travel restrictions.
In a 2023 letter from the notorious Evin prison shared with CNN, Mohammadi railed against the government's policy of compulsory hijab-wearing, calling it a “fraudulent plot against women” and a tool “to… “to strengthen the power of the religious government.”
Last August, she was sentenced to another year in prison for her continued activism behind bars after giving a media interview and statement about sexual assaults in prison, which she said had “significantly increased,” leading her to report the abuse as now referred to as “systematic.”
Journalists Niloufar Hamedi and Elaheh Mohammadi in a photo posted on social media by their Elaheh's sister
Iranian journalists who covered the death of Mahsa Amini have been released from prison on bail
The Iranian government has denied widespread allegations of sexual assault against detainees, including in an in-depth CNN investigation last year, calling them “false” and “baseless.”
According to state media, Mohammadi's new ruling comes shortly after two journalists were temporarily released on bail after being detained in Iran after reporting on the death of Mahsa Amini in 2022.
According to Iran's state news agency IRNA, journalists Niloofar Hamedi and Elaheh Mohammadi, who were convicted in October, are currently awaiting a verdict on their appeals. As IRNA reported, the women were allowed to leave their Tehran prison on Sunday on bail of 10 billion tomans (nearly $200,000 each). They were also banned from leaving the country, it was said.
Hamedi and Mohammadi were arrested in late September 2022 after protests spread across Iran, fueled by the death of 22-year-old Amini, who died in the custody of Iran's morality police after being arrested for allegedly improperly wearing her headscarf.