Nobel laureate says she's receiving death threats from Iran's intel agents
Iranian human rights activist and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Narges Mohammadi says she is receiving death threats that are openly coming from Iran’s intelligence agents.
Iranian human rights activist and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Narges Mohammadi says she is receiving death threats that are openly coming from Iran’s intelligence agents.
“Death threats are coming from intelligence agents. Their aim was to show that the threats are serious. For them, there are no limits anymore,” Mohammadi said in an interview with the German magazine Der Spiegel published on Wednesday.
Last month, Norwegian Nobel Committee chair Jorgen Watne Frydnes said in a statement he had received an "urgent phone call" from Mohammadi who said her life was now in danger.
"The clear message, in her own words, is that 'I have been directly and indirectly threatened with 'physical elimination' by agents of the regime'," he said at the time.
In her Spiegel interview, Mohammadi accused Iranian intelligence authorities of intensifying their crackdown on civil society since the June ceasefire with Israel.
“The Islamic Republic is one of the worst regimes in the modern world. We human rights activists have been protesting for years against an apartheid-like system that systematically oppresses women,” Mohammadi said.
The Nobel Peace Prize laureate also denounced the wide-ranging repression of free speech and the ongoing pressure on rights activists.
“In Iran, there is no freedom of expression. Critics are tortured and killed in prisons. The number of executions has even been rising on a daily basis. There is hardly a human rights activist in Iran who has not been imprisoned,” Mohammadi said.
According to Reporters Without Borders, “Iran has reinforced its position as one of the most repressive countries in terms of press freedom, with journalists and independent media constantly persecuted through arbitrary arrests and harsh sentences handed down after unfair trials before revolutionary courts.”
Path to democracy
Mohammadi argued that the Islamic Republic is in a constant state of crisis and has lost its legitimacy.
Referencing the antigovernment protests over the past few years, she said the Woman, Life, Freedom movement that started in 2022 cannot be silenced and will continue.
“We have not bowed our heads, and I am certain that the transition from a religious dictatorship to democracy is possible through the will of the people,” Mohammadi said.
The protests erupted nationwide in 2022 after the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Jina Amini in morality police custody for allegedly violating hijab rules. Hundreds of demonstrators were killed and thousands arrested in a sweeping crackdown.
Since then, Iranian authorities have executed 11 people over the Woman, Life, Freedom protests, with many more at risk.
Mohammadi, who is currently on medical furlough from Tehran’s Evin Prison, has refused two official orders to return and said she would not go back voluntarily. “If they want me, they should pay the price and arrest me themselves — I will not go to prison quietly,” she said in a statement on July 7, describing her stance as civil disobedience.
Mohammadi is serving a combined 13-year and 9-month sentence on charges including “spreading propaganda” against the Islamic Republic. While temporarily released, she has continued to speak out in interviews and online events with human rights groups.
