Exclusive Memoir Extract Reveals Prison Torture and Neglect
In an exclusive excerpt of writing smuggled from an Iranian prison, Nobel laureate Narges Mohammadi provides a harrowing account of her experiences, including the "torture" of solitary confinement and systematic medical neglect by prison authorities.
The writings, spanning the past decade, form part of a forthcoming memoir offering a rare and disturbing insight into Mohammadi’s treatment while incarcerated. The memoir details repeated beatings, relentless interrogations, denial of medical care, and prolonged periods in solitary confinement during her numerous imprisonments.
"There is no hardship worse than illness combined with imprisonment," she wrote. "Authoritarian regimes do not always need an executioner’s rope. Sometimes, they simply wait for the human body to fail."
Following these writings and after a subsequent rearrest, Mohammadi’s health deteriorated sharply this year, with her weight dropping by over 20 kilograms. In March, she was found unconscious in her cell after an apparent heart attack. Despite urgent requests from her family and medical team for proper treatment from her surgeons in Tehran, these were repeatedly denied. She is currently held at a small regional hospital in Zanjan.
Her family has expressed grave concern over her continued detention and the refusal to provide adequate medical care.
Health Complications and Prison Conditions
Mohammadi has documented the severe toll her imprisonments have taken on her health. She has suffered a pulmonary embolism, seizures, multiple infections, chest pain, and other life-threatening medical conditions while incarcerated. The memoir describes the agonizing delays and often insufficient medical attention she received during these crises.
The writings were covertly smuggled out of Iran’s notorious Evin, Qarchak, and Zanjan prisons by fellow inmates and visitors, who risked their own safety in doing so. Over the past decade, the manuscripts had to be rewritten multiple times after prison guards discovered and destroyed pages or entire notebooks.
Upcoming Memoir and Background
The memoir, titled A Woman Never Stops Fighting, is scheduled for publication in September. It chronicles Mohammadi’s early life, the influence of her parents on her political beliefs, her journey into activism, and the extensive periods she spent imprisoned for public protests.
Mohammadi has been arrested 14 times due to her activism focused on advancing women’s rights in Iran, improving prison conditions, and campaigning against the regime’s use of the death penalty.
She has endured multiple convictions resulting in imprisonment and 154 lashes. In 2023, while imprisoned amid the Women, Life, Freedom protests, she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
In December 2024, Mohammadi was released on a temporary sentence suspension following a series of health crises but was violently rearrested a year later. In February of this year, she received additional prison sentences extending her incarceration.
