Iran's most prominent human rights activist has said that repression inside the country has intensified sharply since the outbreak of war, with economic misery and a widening crackdown leaving ordinary Iranians with «no room for people to breathe».
Narges Mohammadi, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2023, made the assessment in an interview conducted from outside Iran. The 54-year-old was temporarily released from prison earlier this year for medical reasons after she lost consciousness and was transferred to a hospital.
«I am sorry to say, but since the outbreak of war, in the past months and last year and a half, we have seen that repression in society has severely increased, and now, with these economic pressures and with the repression that really has left no room for people to breathe, it's the people who are paying an extremely heavy price,» she said.
Mohammadi described a population grappling with overlapping crises: the ongoing conflict, deepening economic pressure and brutal crackdowns on protests. Yet she also pointed to what she called a rising «wave of resistance», a shift she traces to the 2022 protests that followed the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman who died in hospital after being detained for violating Iran's strict Islamic dress code.
«If you go out into the streets, you see a wave of resistance among the people, a wave of awareness, and their determination to stand up for their rights,» Mohammadi said. She added that many in a new younger generation «know their rights» and are standing firm. «And that gives us reason for hope.»
The interview coincides with the publication of Mohammadi's memoir, «A Woman Never Stops Fighting», which was written behind bars, with parts of it smuggled out by fellow inmates. Editions in French, German and nine other languages are being released this month. The English and Farsi editions will follow next year. Her representatives said the release dates were chosen to honour Amini's memory, with the English and Farsi editions timed for September 2027.
Mohammadi has been jailed repeatedly over decades of human rights advocacy and was behind bars when she received the Nobel Prize. She described her most recent arrest and detention as «life-threatening». She said she was severely beaten by security forces when detained in December in the northeastern city of Mashhad, where she and a group of activists were attending a memorial ceremony for human rights lawyer Khosrow Alikordi, who was found dead in his office. She was arrested while giving a public speech.
She was subsequently sentenced to 16 years in prison and more than 100 lashes for attending the rally. The flogging has not been carried out, but she spent long periods in solitary confinement. «My detention was really life-threatening,» she said. «My head was severely hurt, because most of the hits were to my head, and despite being in that condition, they kept me for two months in solitary confinement during which my condition was really concerning.»
She lost consciousness on 1 May and was released on bail nearly ten days later, then transferred to a hospital in Tehran, where she remained for another two weeks. She said she is now recovering.
Mohammadi began writing her memoir in 2019 during an earlier stint in Evin prison in Tehran, where many political prisoners are held. She lost her handwritten notes that year when she was moved to another site. This time, she said, «with the help of fellow inmates, we got a few pages out, a few pages at a time. If it weren't for them, I couldn't have done it.»
She said she drew inspiration from other women's stories, beginning with her own mother, and recalled «terrifying memories» from her childhood during the 1980s Iran-Iraq war, which shaped what she described as a hatred of war. She also spoke of her concern when Evin prison was bombed during the 12-day war between Israel and Iran in 2025, a period when she was out of prison. «At that moment, I felt that, in this country, we are at the intersection of injustice, discrimination, war, authoritarianism,» she said. «All of those are trampling on our people's human rights.»
Mohammadi has been handed sentences totalling 44 years and has already spent ten years in prison, including 161 days in solitary confinement. She has been banned from travelling abroad since 2009 and is unable to join her husband and two children, who live in exile in France. Her sentence is currently suspended, and she has said she must return whenever the judiciary issues the order.