Iran has handed Nobel Peace Prize laureate Narges Mohammadi a new prison term of more than seven years, deepening its confrontation with one of the most prominent voices of the “Woman, Life, Freedom” movement even as it seeks to ease pressure from the West over its nuclear program. The latest sentence, delivered by a Revolutionary Court in the northeastern city of Mashhad and confirmed by her lawyer, comes as the 53‑year‑old rights defender wages a hunger strike from behind bars to protest worsening repression and prison conditions.
A new verdict from Mashhad
Mohammadi’s support network said on Sunday that she had been informed of the new sentence during a brief phone call with her lawyer, Mostafa Nili, after weeks in near‑total isolation.
According to Nili’s account, relayed on social media and to international outlets:
- A Revolutionary Court in Mashhad sentenced Mohammadi to six years in prison for “gathering and collusion to commit crimes against national security.”
- She received an additional 18‑month term for “propaganda” against the Islamic Republic.
- The court also imposed a two‑year travel ban and ordered two years of internal exile to the remote town of Khosf in South Khorasan province once she is released.
Iranian authorities have not publicly acknowledged the ruling, a pattern that has accompanied many of Mohammadi’s previous convictions.
The new term is on top of multiple existing sentences that have kept her in and out of Iranian prisons for much of the past two decades over her peaceful advocacy. Deutsche Welle notes that her foundation describes the latest proceedings as a “sham trial” held without due process.
Charges rooted in protest and speech
The case appears to be directly linked to Mohammadi’s role in documenting abuses and encouraging resistance during and after the nationwide “Woman, Life, Freedom” protests sparked by the 2022 death of Mahsa Amini in the custody of Iran’s morality police.
Reuters and regional media report that:
- Mohammadi was rearrested in December 2025 in Mashhad, after attending a ceremony honoring Khosrow Alikordi, a local human‑rights lawyer who died in suspicious circumstances.
- Prosecutor Hasan Hematifar accused her of making “inflammatory” remarks at the memorial, chanting “norm‑breaking slogans” and “disrupting the peace,” acts the court treated as evidence of organized “assembly and collusion.”
Rights group Front Line Defenders notes that Iranian courts have repeatedly used broad national‑security and propaganda provisions to punish Mohammadi’s peaceful work, from supporting families of those killed in crackdowns to calling for civil disobedience against compulsory veiling.
Sunday’s sentence is the latest in a string of verdicts: in recent years, various branches of the Tehran Revolutionary Court have handed her additional terms for “propaganda against the state,” involvement in human‑rights groups and statements from inside prison.
A Nobel laureate behind bars
Mohammadi was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2023 “for her fight against the oppression of women in Iran and her fight to promote human rights and freedom for all.” The prize committee highlighted her leadership in a movement that demands an end to compulsory hijab and the abolition of the death penalty.
At the time of the award she was already incarcerated, having been returned to Tehran’s Evin prison in 2021 after a brief release. Her teenage twins, Ali and Kiana, accepted the Nobel medal and diploma in Oslo on her behalf, reading out a message in which she vowed that “victory is not easy, but it is certain.”
The new sentence underscores that the Nobel has offered no protection:
- She has now been detained continuously since 2021, much of that time in solitary confinement or under severe restrictions, for her campaigns against the hijab laws and capital punishment.
- According to her foundation, she has been on a hunger strike since February 2, and was briefly taken to hospital earlier in the week before being returned to custody despite what supporters describe as a “serious” deterioration in her health.
Family and campaigners say the authorities have repeatedly conditioned medical care or access to court hearings on her willingness to wear the compulsory headscarf, which she has refused as a matter of principle.
Part of a wider post‑protest crackdown
Mohammadi’s new sentence comes amid what rights monitors say is a tightening clampdown on any remaining pockets of dissent following the “Woman, Life, Freedom” uprising.
Reuters reports that Tehran has intensified arrests and prosecutions after a new wave of anti‑government demonstrations that began in late December, with officials invoking national security to silence activists, lawyers, and relatives of those killed in earlier protests. The Los Angeles Times notes that authorities have used a mix of internet blackouts and lethal force to quell unrest, leaving thousands dead according to exile groups, a figure the government disputes.
In that environment:
- Mohammadi’s high‑profile activism, smuggling letters from prison, documenting sexual violence against women detainees, and urging continued civil disobedience has made her a symbolic target.
- Her hunger strike has attracted fresh international attention to prison conditions and the use of medical neglect as a tool of pressure.
Global Banking & Finance Review, citing rights groups, says the new 7½‑year term is intended to “send a message” that even Nobel recognition will not shield Iranians who challenge the state’s authority, particularly on the hijab and executions, two pillars of the Islamic Republic’s ideological identity.
International reaction and what comes next
At the time of writing, Iran’s foreign ministry has not commented on the new verdict. But the case is likely to fuel renewed calls from Western governments and UN bodies for Mohammadi’s immediate release.
In 2023 and 2024, UN human‑rights experts repeatedly urged Tehran to free her and other “Woman, Life, Freedom” detainees, warning that their treatment could amount to torture. European governments and the United States have used sanctions and public statements to highlight her plight, though they have had little visible effect on her conditions.
The timing of the sentence is also politically sensitive. The Los Angeles Times notes that it comes just as Iran is engaged in high‑stakes nuclear talks with the United States in Oman, trying to avert the threat of further military strikes while defending its right to enrich uranium. By doubling down on a Nobel laureate at home even as it seeks concessions abroad, Tehran is signaling that external pressure on its human‑rights record will not easily translate into domestic leniency.
For Mohammadi herself, the new term means that, barring a political decision, she faces well over a decade more in prison and internal exile when previous sentences are considered. For the movement she embodies, it is another reminder that Iran’s rulers see women’s bodily autonomy and the right to dissent not as negotiable reforms but as existential challenges.
From her cell, however, Mohammadi has consistently argued that the cost is worth bearing. In one smuggled letter published after her Nobel win, she wrote that “no power can indefinitely suppress the desire for freedom in the hearts of women.” The state’s answer, once again, has been more years behind bars.