Iranians are suffering as economic misery and internal repression leave \u201cno room for people to breathe\u201d after 1\u00bd years of wars and ongoing U.S. sanctions, the country\u2019s most prominent human rights activist has told the Associated Press.<\/p>\n
Narges Mohammadi, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2023, was temporarily released from prison for medical reasons this year after falling unconscious and being transferred to a hospital. <\/p>\n
Her memoir, titled \u201cA Woman Never Stops Fighting,\u201d was written behind bars, with parts of it smuggled out by fellow inmates. Editions in French, German and nine other languages are being released this month. The English and Persian editions are to be released next year. <\/p>\n
In an interview conducted Friday by AP from outside Iran, Mohammadi said Iranians are grappling with multiple crises stemming from the war and deepening economic pressure. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s the people who are paying an extremely heavy price,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
But she said many Iranians continue to quietly defy their leaders, a change she traces to the 2022 protests over the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman who died in a hospital after being detained for violating authorities\u2019 strict Islamic dress code. <\/p>\n
The release of Mohammadi\u2019s book this month coincides with the anniversary of Amini\u2019s death to honor her memory, her representatives said. The English and Persian editions are to be released next September for the same reason.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you go out into the streets, you see a wave of resistance among the people, a wave of awareness, and their determination to stand up for their rights,\u201d Mohammadi said. She said government repression has intensified, but that many in a new younger generation \u201cknow their rights\u201d and were standing firm. \u201cAnd that gives us reason for hope.\u201d <\/p>\n
AP agreed not to ask Mohammadi specific questions about the political situation and leadership in Iran, because of concerns for her safety, though she commented generally about the cost of war. <\/p>\n
Detention was \u2018life-threatening\u2019<\/p>\n
Mohammadi, 54, who has been jailed repeatedly over decades of advocating for human rights and was behind bars when she was awarded the Nobel Prize, described her most recent arrest, detention and health. <\/p>\n
She said she was severely beaten by security forces when detained in December, in the northeastern city of Mashhad. She and a group of activists were attending a memorial ceremony for human rights lawyer Khosrow Alikordi, who was found dead in his office. She was arrested while giving a speech. She was sentenced to 16 years and more than a 100 lashes for attending that rally. She has not been flogged but spent long periods in solitary confinement. <\/p>\n
\u201cMy detention was really life-threatening,\u201d she said. \u201cMy head was severely hurt because most of the hits were to my head, and despite being in that condition, they kept me for two months in solitary confinement during which my condition was really concerning.\u201d <\/p>\n
She lost consciousness May 1 and was transferred to a hospital. She was released on bail nearly 10 days later and transferred to a hospital in Tehran, where she remained for two more weeks.<\/p>\n
She smuggled out fragments of her memoir, which she started writing in 2019 during a stint in Iran\u2019s notorious Evin prison in Tehran, where many political prisoners are held. She lost her handwritten notes that year when they moved her to another site. <\/p>\n
This time, \u201cwith the help of fellow inmates, we got a few pages out, a few pages at a time,\u201d she said. \u201cIf it weren\u2019t for them, I couldn\u2019t have done it.\u201d<\/p>\n
As for her health, \u201cI am recovering,\u201d Mohammadi said. <\/p>\n
Other women who inspired her<\/p>\n
Mohammadi took inspiration from other women\u2019s stories growing up, beginning with her mother.<\/p>\n
\u201cI tried to put an image to each of these \u2014 how these women really managed to change their world, their society, themselves, the next generation \u2014 make them aware, make them resist,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
She also recalled \u201cterrifying memories\u201d from her childhood during the 1980s Iran-Iraq war and how she developed \u201ca hatred for war.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI wasn\u2019t more than a child when the Iran-Iraq war happened, but I remember a lot of the repression, repression of many political currents and forces, many executions that happened in the silence and darkness of Evin and prisons around the country,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
She risks return to prison<\/p>\n
She recalled her concern when she learned that Evin prison had been bombed last year during the 12-day war between Israel and Iran, a period when she was out of prison.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt that moment, I felt that, in this country, we are at the intersection of injustice, discrimination, war, authoritarianism,\u201d she said. \u201cAll of those are trampling on our people\u2019s human rights.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mohammadi has been handed down sentences totaling 44 years. She already has spent 10 years in prison, including 161 days in solitary confinement. She has been banned from traveling abroad since 2009 and is unable to join her husband and two children who live in exile in France. <\/p>\n
\u201cMy sentence is currently suspended, and I must return whenever the judiciary issues the order,\u201d Mohammadi later said in a text message shared by her team. <\/p>\n
Radjy writes for the Associated Press. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Iranians are suffering as economic misery and internal repression leave \u201cno room for people to breathe\u201d after 1\u00bd…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":621873,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[12987,43930,281074,4144,85,87,107481,46,93558,1261,124709,43,1266,22359,281073,2201,5175,1661],"class_list":["post-621872","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-israel","tag-country","tag-edition","tag-government-repression","tag-hospital","tag-il","tag-iran","tag-iranians","tag-israel","tag-mahsa-amini","tag-month","tag-narges-mohammadi","tag-news","tag-people","tag-prison","tag-prominent-human-right-activist","tag-war","tag-woman","tag-year"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/621872","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=621872"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/621872\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/621873"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=621872"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=621872"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=621872"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}