Narges Mohammadi has been sentenced to seven years in prison for her activism against Iran's regime. Meanwhile, repression continues in the country following the protests at the start of the year.

Nobel Peace Prize laureate Narges Mohammadi has been sentenced to an additional seven years in prison by an Iranian court. Mohammadi, who had already been sentenced to thirteen years for her activism for women's rights in the country, was released at the end of 2024 on health grounds, but was re-arrested last December. She carried out a hunger strike for several days, and has not been permitted to contact her family. Meanwhile, the Iranian regime continues its crackdown following the protests that shook the country at the beginning of January, while talks with the United States have resumed.

Narges Mohammadi was born in 1972 in the city of Zanjan, Iran, and has fought for the rights of women and political prisoners in her country since her university years, as well as for the abolition of the death penalty. In November 2021, she was imprisoned in Evin Prison in Tehran due to her activism, and was handed a sentence of more than thirteen years for collusion against state security and propaganda against the government.

Even during her imprisonment, Mohammadi managed to make her voice heard, particularly in autumn 2022 when she supported the anti-regime protests that erupted in the country following the killing of Mahsa Amini by the morality police. In autumn 2023, she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for "her fight against the oppression of women in Iran and her fight to promote human rights and freedom for all."

Over time, Mohammadi has experienced health problems in prison due to a bone disease. For this reason, in December 2024 the Iranian regime decided to suspend her sentence for three weeks, releasing her from prison. Ultimately, partly thanks to international pressure, Mohammadi did not return to custody — until last December, when she was re-arrested during a commemorative ceremony for Khosro Alikordi, a lawyer whose death human rights activists, including Mohammadi herself, had been calling on authorities to clarify.

A year after her release, Mohammadi has thus returned to a prison run by the Revolutionary Guards, the armed body of Iran's regime. Since then, she has not been permitted to contact her family, and the only available information is the occasional updates gathered by her lawyer.

In early February, the Nobel Peace Prize laureate began a hunger strike "to protest her illegal detention and the terrible conditions in which she is being held," as highlighted by the foundation bearing her name. Her family raised the alarm about her precarious health and the urgency of ensuring she receives medical care and is returned to freedom. On 8 February, however, an Iranian court handed down a new sentence of seven years in prison, to be added to the thirteen-year sentence she is already serving. "She was sentenced to six years in prison for criminal conspiracy and collusion, to one and a half years for propaganda, and to a two-year travel ban," her lawyer stated. Iranian authorities have not, for the moment, commented on the new ruling.

The sentence against Narges Mohammadi, one of the strongest voices in Iran on human rights, comes in parallel with the intense crackdown underway in the country following the protests of recent weeks.

The demonstrations began in the final days of 2025 due to dire economic conditions, worsened by the tightening of international sanctions following the brief conflict with Israel last June. The first to protest were merchants in Tehran's bazaar, but as the days passed, the demonstrations spread to universities and the wider population, involving dozens of cities and transforming into a popular uprising against the regime. The regime blocked internet access and violently suppressed the protests in a manner unprecedented in the country's history. A definitive death toll has yet to be established, but estimates speak of more than 30,000 deaths.

In recent days, the regime has turned its attention to those who, in some way, may have supported the protesters or simply sheltered them. Among these are doctors and healthcare workers, accused of registering injured individuals under false names and providing home care to prevent people from being arrested by revolutionary guards stationed at hospital buildings. Dozens of healthcare workers have been arrested, and the total number of arrests since the start of the protests is said to have exceeded 50,000, including several more reformist political figures. Meanwhile, on 6 February, talks between the Iranian government and the United States resumed in Oman. At the centre of the discussions are the regime's crackdown within the country, following Trump's threats of military intervention, as well as the question of nuclear capabilities.