Jailed Iranian Nobel Peace Prize winner Narges Mohammadi has been transferred to intensive care and is “on the brink of death,” her brother Hamidreza Mohammadi told RFE/RL’s Radio Farda.
“She is dying,” Hamidreza said. “Because of the harsh conditions of prison and the damage that has been done to her, she is on the brink of death. The responsibility for Narges’s life, and the lives of all prisoners, rests directly with [judicial authorities and the security apparatus].”
Rights activist Mohammadi, 54, was awarded the 2024 Nobel Peace Prize for her fight for women’s rights in Iran.
She has spent much of the last decade behind bars as a result of her work and in, December 2025, was arrested again during a memorial ceremony in the northeastern city of Mashhad.
Following her arrest, she was given a new prison sentence of 7 ½ years, and is being held in Zanjan prison, some 330 kilometers west of the capital, Tehran.
Denied Access To Care
Her deterioration in health marks a sharp escalation from conditions reported just weeks earlier, when her brother said she had suffered a heart attack in prison and was being denied access to specialist care.
She has since collapsed, been rendered unconscious for several hours, and was transferred to a coronary care unit after prison medical staff were unable to treat her, her brother said. She is breathing with supplemental oxygen and suffering from critically low blood pressure and nausea.
Mohammadi has an underlying heart condition, has suffered a pulmonary embolism, developed a blood clot in her leg, and has undergone multiple stents and angioplasties.
Doctors have said that a further cardiac procedure she urgently requires cannot be performed in Zanjan and must be carried out in Tehran.
Her brother said both forensic medical authorities and a Tehran judicial official have called for her transfer. Responsibility has been passed between Tehran and Zanjan’s courts without resolution, he added.
