Nobel Peace Prize laureate Narges Mohammadi is on hunger strike while detained by Iranian authorities, her foundation said in a statement.
In a statement shared exclusively with CNN, the Paris-based foundation run by her family said it had received reliable information that Ms. Muhammadi had launched a strike on Monday “to protest the illegal detention and dire conditions in which she is being held, a reality faced by the large number of political prisoners currently held in Iran.”
Muhammadi’s son, Ali Rahmani, said in a statement that he was “deeply concerned” about his mother and everyone else detained by the regime.
“What is happening in our country is a crime against humanity,” Rahmani said, adding that before her arrest, her mother “advocated for unity, solidarity and peace.”
Mohammadi was arrested by security forces and police in December during a memorial service for lawyer and human rights activist Khosrow Alikordi, who was found dead in his office.
She was arrested in Mashhad, Iran’s second largest city.
The foundation said Mohammadi’s medical history, which includes heart attacks, chest pains, high blood pressure, spinal disc problems and other illnesses, “makes her continued detention extremely dangerous and a violation of human rights law.”
According to the foundation, the Nobel Peace Prize laureate has been restricted from seeing his family, and has not been in contact with his brother since then, with only one phone call on December 14th.
Mohammadi’s husband, Taghi Rahmani, said authorities are demanding that his wife say “I’m OK” when she calls. “But the Narges we know refuses to bow to such pressure. She insists on telling her truth,” he said.
“They also know that she will resume her activities as soon as she is released because she considers it her duty to rejoin her people,” Taghi added. “Narges will never be silenced. It is her voice that they fear most.”
Mohammadi, one of Iran’s most prominent human rights activists, won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2023.
She has spent much of the past two decades as a prisoner in Tehran’s Evin prison, notorious for detaining regime critics.
In December 2024, Iranian authorities suspended her sentence for three weeks to allow her to recover from surgery to remove part of the bone in her lower right leg. Doctors discovered a lesion there that appeared to be cancerous.
Mohammadi was expected to return to prison soon after, but remained on furlough until his arrest in December. According to the Narges Foundation, she has been sentenced to 36 years in prison on multiple occasions for crimes including acts against national security and spreading propaganda.
Supporters say she is a political prisoner detained for her work promoting women’s rights and democracy.
“In these difficult days for our country, Iran, we call on human rights organizations, activists and the international community to think about political prisoners in detention centers and put practical actions to save their lives on the agenda,” the foundation said on Wednesday.
