Jailed Iranian Nobel laureate Narges Mohammadi suffers major health setback: Lawyer

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iranian Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Narges Mohammadi is in critical condition, her Paris-based lawyer warned on Tuesday, noting that the prominent rights activist and journalist might have suffered a heart attack in a prison in northwest Tehran.

“We are not just fighting for Narges’s freedom; we are fighting so that her heart continues to beat,” Chirinne Ardakani, told supporters at a press conference, adding that Mohammadi is “between life and death.”

According to her family, Mohammadi suffered a heart attack on March 24 and was hospitalized on May 1 as her condition rapidly worsened, as cited by French state media. Her lawyer said she has lost around 20 kilograms in prison, can barely speak, and is now “unrecognizable” following her latest arrest in December 2025.

The human rights defender has a history of serious health issues, including heart disease that required a stent in 2022, high blood pressure, and surgery in late 2024 to remove a potentially cancerous bone lesion from her right leg.

In a letter addressed to the Iranian judiciary on Friday, Amnesty International reported the “deliberate denial of timely and adequate specialized medical care” for Mohammadi’s heart condition, while also raising concerns about torture and ill-treatment in prison.

“We have never been so afraid for Narges’s life; she could leave us at any moment,” her lawyer said on Tuesday.

Mohammadi, 54, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2023 for her outspoken activism against systemic violence against women and her opposition to the death penalty in Iran.

She is currently serving overlapping sentences totaling more than 31 years on charges including “propaganda against the state” and “threatening national security.” According to the Free Narges Coalition - an international alliance pressing for her release - Mohammadi has been arrested 13 times and convicted five times.

Mohammadi’s husband and twin teenage children live in Paris. Her lawyer also urged the French government to take a firmer stance regarding her case.