Iran detains Nobel Peace Prize laureate Narges Mohammadi

Iranian security forces arrested 2023 Nobel Peace Prize laureate Narges Mohammadi on Friday along with at least eight other activists in an arrest condemned as “brutal” by the Norwegian Nobel committee.

Mohammadi, who was granted temporary leave from prison in December 2024, was arrested along with eight other activists at the funeral of lawyer Khosrow Alikordi, who was found dead in his office last week, her X foundation wrote.

Among those arrested at the ceremony in the eastern city of Mashhad was Mohammadi’s colleague, prominent activist Sepideh Gholian, who had previously been imprisoned with her in Tehran’s Evin prison.

“These individuals were present solely to pay their respects and express their solidarity at a memorial service,” her foundation said, adding that the arrests “constitute a flagrant and serious violation of fundamental freedoms and basic human rights.”

“Narges was hit on the legs and they were holding her by the hair and dragging her down,” said one of her brothers, Hamid Mohammadi. AFP in Oslo where he lives.

The Norwegian Nobel committee said it was “deeply concerned about today’s brutal arrest” of Mohammadi, calling on Iran to clarify her whereabouts “immediately”.

The arrest came two days after a ceremony in Oslo for the winner of the 2025 prize, Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, a staunch critic of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, who is an ally of Tehran.

The Nobel committee said it “notes” the timing “given the close cooperation between the regimes in Iran and Venezuela.”

In Iran, the Mehr news agency quoted Mashhad governor Hassan Hosseini as saying the people were arrested at the ceremony after “shouting slogans considered against public norms,” ​​but did not name them.

Slogans at the funeral

Alicordi, 45, was a lawyer who had defended clients in sensitive cases, including people arrested in a nationwide crackdown on protests that broke out in 2022.

His body was found on December 5, with rights groups calling for an investigation into his death, which the Norway-based NGO Iran Human Rights said was “very strongly suspected of state murder”.

The US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) released footage of Mohammadi, who was not wearing the headscarf that women are required to wear in public in the Islamic Republic, attending the ceremony with a crowd of other Alicordi supporters.

He said they chanted slogans such as “Long live Iran,” “We fight, we die, we do not accept humiliation” and “Death to the dictator” at the ceremony which, according to Islamic tradition, marked seven days since Alicordi’s death.

Other footage broadcast by Persian television channels based outside Iran showed Mohammadi climbing atop a vehicle with a microphone and encouraging people to shout slogans.

“When peaceful citizens cannot mourn without being beaten and dragged, it reveals a government terrified of truth and accountability. It also reveals the extraordinary bravery of Iranians who refuse to surrender their dignity,” said Hadi Ghaemi, executive director of the New York-based Center for Human Rights in Iran.

Years behind bars

Mohammadi, 53, who was last arrested in November 2021, has spent much of the past decade behind bars.

Her twin children received the Nobel Prize in Oslo on her behalf in 2023 and she has now not seen them for 11 years. Her temporary release in December 2024 was granted on health grounds after problems related to her lungs and other issues.

“In prison, she had many complications. Her lungs, her heart, she had some operations,” said Hamid Mohammadi.

“I’m not worried that she’s been arrested. She’s been arrested many times, but what worries me more is that they will put a lot of pressure on her physical and psychological state. And it may lead to these complications again,” he added.

Mohammadi has also regularly predicted the fall of the clerical system that has ruled Iran since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, saying in a 19th birthday message to her twins last month that “they (the authorities) live every day in fear of the fall that will inevitably come at the hands of the people of Iran.”