Narges Mohammadi

Narges Mohammadi (born 1972) is an Iranian physicist, journalist, and human rights activist. She is one of Iran's most prominent advocates for the abolition of the death penalty and for women's rights. She has been arrested multiple times by the Iranian government, sentenced to decades in prison, and has spent much of her adult life behind bars for her peaceful activism. In 2023 she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize while serving her current prison sentence — making her one of the very few Nobel laureates to receive the prize while imprisoned. Her husband and two children live in exile in France.

Origin

Iran

Lifespan

born 1972

Era

21st-century

Subjects

Politics Ethics Sociology History Philosophy

Skills

Critical Thinking Critical Literacy Resilience Intercultural Competence

Why They Matter

Narges Mohammadi matters because she represents one of the most important questions in ethics and civic life: what does a person owe to justice when speaking the truth and defending human rights comes at enormous personal cost? She has been imprisoned, flogged, and separated from her children — and she has continued her work. Her life raises questions about courage, conscience, and the relationship between individual action and systemic change. She also matters as a case study in how authoritarian governments use the law as a tool of oppression — and in how international recognition and solidarity can provide some measure of protection to people in the most dangerous circumstances. Her story is directly relevant to teaching about human rights, civic courage, the rule of law, and what it means to be an active citizen.

Key Ideas

Civic courage — acting for justice despite personal cost

Mohammadi has been arrested at least thirteen times, convicted multiple times, and sentenced to more than thirty years in prison and over one hundred lashes — all for peaceful activism: writing, speaking, organising, and advocating for the rights of women and prisoners. She has continued this work from inside prison, smuggling out statements, articles, and testimony. Her life is one of the clearest examples in the modern world of what it means to act on your conscience when the cost is enormous. She is not a soldier or a revolutionary — she is a physicist and journalist who simply refused to stop telling the truth.

The abolition of the death penalty

One of Mohammadi's central campaigns has been against the death penalty in Iran, which has one of the highest execution rates in the world. She argues that state execution is a violation of the most fundamental human right — the right to life — regardless of what crime the person has committed. She has documented executions, supported the families of those executed, and advocated internationally for abolition. Her book White Torture describes the conditions of solitary confinement in Iranian prisons, which she experienced directly and which she argues is itself a form of torture.

Key Quotations

"I will not stop. My voice will not be silenced."

— Statement from Evin Prison, 2023

This simple statement, made from inside prison, captures the essential quality of Mohammadi's activism. She has been imprisoned, sentenced to flogging, and separated from her children — and she has responded to each punishment by continuing to speak. The statement is important not just as personal testimony but as a demonstration that the human commitment to truth and justice can survive extraordinary coercion. It is a useful starting point for discussion: what would it take to silence you? What would you not stop doing, regardless of the consequences?

"The Iranian government thought that by arresting me, imprisoning me, and sentencing me, it could silence me. But it has failed."

— Statement released through her family, 2022

This quotation captures something important about the logic of her activism and about the relationship between repression and resistance. Authoritarian governments use imprisonment partly as a deterrent — they hope that punishing one person will discourage others. Mohammadi's refusal to be silenced challenges this logic directly. It also invites students to think about why some people cannot be silenced by fear: what values, relationships, or beliefs sustain a person through extreme adversity?

Using This Thinker in the Classroom

Citizenship / Civic Education When introducing the idea that individuals can make a difference to society

How to introduce

Ask students: Can one person change anything? After discussion, introduce Mohammadi: she is a physicist and journalist who decided to speak out about human rights in Iran and has paid an enormous price for it. She has been in prison for most of the past two decades. She has not stopped. Ask: Why do you think she keeps going? What does she believe that makes the cost worth paying? What would you need to believe to do the same? Use her story as a concrete example that individual action — even under extreme constraint — can matter and can be heard.

Ethics / Philosophy When discussing moral courage and what it means to do the right thing when it is costly

How to introduce

Ask students: Have you ever had to choose between what was easy and what was right? After sharing, introduce Mohammadi as one of the most striking contemporary examples of someone who has consistently chosen what they believe is right over what is safe. Ask: Is she brave, or is she simply doing what any person should do? Is there a difference between admiring someone's courage and believing we should all act the same way? What are the limits of what we can reasonably ask of each other in terms of moral courage?

Further Reading

The Nobel Committee's announcement of Mohammadi's 2023 Peace Prize is freely available on the Nobel Prize website and provides an accessible summary of her life and work. Her daughter Kiana Rahmani's acceptance speech in Oslo is also available online and is a moving and accessible introduction to her mother's situation. BBC and Guardian profiles from October 2023 provide good accessible overviews.

Key Ideas

Women's rights in Iran — the hijab protests and beyond

Mohammadi has been a central figure in advocating for women's rights in Iran, including the right to choose whether to wear the hijab. The 2022 protests that erupted after the death of Mahsa Amini — a young woman who died in the custody of Iran's morality police after being detained for allegedly wearing her headscarf incorrectly — marked a turning point in Iranian civil society. Mohammadi supported these protests from prison and has argued that the mandatory hijab is not a religious requirement but a tool of political control. She has placed the women's rights struggle in Iran within a broader framework of human dignity and freedom.

The law as a tool of oppression

Mohammadi's case is an important example of how laws can be used to punish people for exercising rights that are internationally recognised. The charges against her — spreading propaganda against the state, acting against national security, insulting officials — are not charges of violence or harm. They are charges of speech. Her prosecutions illustrate that the existence of laws does not guarantee justice, and that legal systems can be instruments of oppression as much as instruments of protection. This is a foundational insight for civic education: the rule of law has value only when the laws themselves respect human rights.

International solidarity and the Nobel Peace Prize

Mohammadi was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2023 while serving her current sentence in Evin Prison. She could not collect the prize herself — her children accepted it on her behalf in Oslo. The Nobel Committee described her as fighting against the oppression of women in Iran and her efforts to promote human rights and freedom for all. The prize brought international attention to her case and to the situation of human rights in Iran more broadly. It raises an important question about the role of international recognition and solidarity: can global attention actually protect individuals in authoritarian states, or does it sometimes make their situation worse?

Key Quotations

"The execution of a human being is the most violent act a government can commit. No crime justifies it."

— From her campaigning writing, various sources

This is one of Mohammadi's central arguments against the death penalty — that state execution is categorically wrong, not because some crimes do not deserve severe punishment, but because killing a human being, even by a state acting within its own laws, is the ultimate act of violence and violates the right to life that belongs to every person. This is a philosophical position that has been debated by thinkers from Kant to Camus, and it connects to broader questions about the purpose of punishment, the limits of state power, and what justice actually requires.

"I chose this path and I accept all its consequences. But I chose it because I believe it is the right path."

— Interview before imprisonment, various sources

This quotation is important for what it reveals about moral agency and conscious choice. Mohammadi is not describing herself as a victim of circumstance — she is describing a deliberate decision made with full awareness of its costs. This connects to philosophical discussions of moral obligation, conscience, and the difference between doing what is safe and doing what is right. It also connects to resilience teaching: the sense that your actions are chosen and purposeful — that you have agency — is one of the most important protective factors against the psychological damage of adversity.

Using This Thinker in the Classroom

Human Rights / Social Studies When studying human rights, their enforcement, and what happens when states violate them

How to introduce

Introduce Mohammadi's case as an example of a government using its own legal system to imprison someone for exercising internationally recognised human rights — freedom of speech, freedom of association, freedom of the press. Ask: If someone is imprisoned under the law of their country, does that make their imprisonment just? What is the relationship between legality and justice? What mechanisms exist for protecting people when their own government violates their rights, and how effective are they? Mohammadi's Nobel Prize offers a concrete example of international solidarity as one such mechanism.

Resilience / Wellbeing When discussing what sustains people through extreme adversity

How to introduce

Ask students: What do you think keeps Narges Mohammadi going? She has been imprisoned multiple times, flogged, and separated from her children — and she continues to write, organise, and speak. What psychological resources make that possible? Connect to resilience concepts: a clear sense of purpose, strong values, connections to others (even at a distance), and the belief that your actions matter. Ask: Does knowing that someone is watching — that the world is paying attention — make a difference? What role does international solidarity play in sustaining individuals under extreme pressure?

Further Reading

White Torture: Interviews with Iran's Women Prisoners (2023) is Mohammadi's most recent book, collecting testimony from women held in solitary confinement in Iranian prisons. It is both a human rights document and a work of literature. Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch both maintain detailed records of her case and of the broader human rights situation in Iran, freely available on their websites. The Iran Human Rights Documentation Center provides the most comprehensive documentation of executions and political imprisonment in Iran.

Key Ideas

White Torture — solitary confinement as a human rights issue

Mohammadi's book White Torture, smuggled out of Evin Prison, documents the experiences of women prisoners held in prolonged solitary confinement in Iran. She named it after the all-white cells, white clothing, and silence that characterise this form of imprisonment. She argues that prolonged solitary confinement — a practice used widely in Iranian political detention — constitutes torture under international law, causing severe and lasting psychological damage. The book is both a human rights document and a work of bearing witness — of ensuring that what happens in secret prisons does not remain secret. The act of writing and smuggling the book is itself a form of resistance.

Reform versus revolution — the debate within Iranian civil society

Mohammadi has consistently positioned herself as a reformist rather than a revolutionary — she advocates for change within and through the framework of rights, law, and non-violence rather than calling for the overthrow of the Iranian state. This position has been debated within Iranian civil society, where some activists argue that the Islamic Republic cannot be reformed and that the only path to genuine freedom is systemic change. Mohammadi's commitment to non-violence and to working within a human rights framework — even as that framework has been denied to her — raises important questions about the strategies available to people living under authoritarian rule and the moral arguments for and against different approaches to political change.

Key Quotations

"They have taken everything from me except my will to fight for what is right."

— Statement from prison, various sources

This quotation raises a profound philosophical question about the relationship between external circumstances and inner freedom — a question explored by thinkers from the Stoics to Viktor Frankl. Mohammadi has been imprisoned, separated from her children, physically punished, and denied basic freedoms. Yet she claims the one thing that cannot be taken: the will to act according to her conscience. This connects to Frankl's argument that the last human freedom is the freedom to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances — and to the Stoic distinction between what is in our power and what is not.

Using This Thinker in the Classroom

Politics / Current Affairs When examining the relationship between law, justice, and human rights in authoritarian contexts

How to introduce

Present the central paradox of Mohammadi's situation: she has been repeatedly convicted and sentenced under Iranian law — law that is applied consistently and through formal legal processes. Yet her convictions are widely regarded internationally as unjust. Ask: What makes a law unjust? Is it possible to have a legal system that functions properly and still produces unjust outcomes? What distinguishes the rule of law from the rule of law in a rights-respecting sense? Use Mohammadi's case alongside Hobbes, Rawls, or other political philosophers to examine what legitimacy actually requires of a legal system.

Gender Studies / Intercultural Competence When discussing women's rights, cultural context, and universal human rights

How to introduce

Introduce the debate that Mohammadi's case generates: some argue that women's rights must be understood within cultural and religious context, and that external criticism of practices like the mandatory hijab is a form of cultural imperialism. Mohammadi — herself Iranian and Muslim — rejects this framing, arguing that human dignity and freedom are universal, not culturally relative. Ask: Does cultural context change what counts as a human rights violation? Who gets to speak for a culture — governments, religious authorities, or the people who live within it? When women within a culture are calling for change, does that settle the cultural relativism question?

Common Misconceptions

Common misconception

Mohammadi's activism is anti-Islamic or anti-Iranian.

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What to teach instead

Mohammadi is Iranian and Muslim. Her activism is not directed against Islam or against Iranian culture — it is directed against specific government policies that she argues violate human rights. She has consistently distinguished between Islamic belief and the political use of religion by the Iranian state to justify repression. Many Iranian Muslims support her position. Framing human rights advocacy as cultural or religious attack is a common technique used by authoritarian governments to delegitimise dissent.

Common misconception

Winning the Nobel Peace Prize means she is now safe or that her situation has been resolved.

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What to teach instead

Mohammadi received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2023 while serving her current prison sentence and remained imprisoned after the prize was awarded. International recognition can provide some protection — it makes a government's treatment of a person more visible and more politically costly — but it does not guarantee safety or release. Several Nobel Peace Prize laureates have remained imprisoned or have died in custody after receiving the prize, including Liu Xiaobo of China.

Common misconception

Human rights activists in authoritarian countries are always released because of international pressure.

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What to teach instead

International pressure is one tool among many and its effectiveness varies enormously depending on the geopolitical situation, the government in question, and the specific circumstances. Many human rights activists remain imprisoned for years or decades despite sustained international advocacy. Mohammadi's case is important partly because it shows that international attention — including the Nobel Prize — can coexist with continued imprisonment. This is a realistic and important lesson for students about the limits of international human rights mechanisms.

Common misconception

Activism only matters if it produces immediate visible results.

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What to teach instead

Mohammadi's activism has not ended the death penalty in Iran, abolished mandatory hijab laws, or released political prisoners. Measured by immediate policy outcomes, her decades of work have not yet succeeded. But this is the wrong measure. Her work has documented abuses that would otherwise be invisible, supported individuals who would otherwise be alone, inspired others to continue, and built an international record that future generations will be able to use. Social change is almost always slow and the people who begin a struggle rarely see it completed. The absence of immediate results is not the same as failure.

Intellectual Connections

Influenced By

Shirin Ebadi

Ebadi — the Iranian lawyer and human rights activist who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2003 — is a direct predecessor and influence on Mohammadi. Both are Iranian women who have advocated for human rights and women's rights within Iran, both have been imprisoned, and both have received international recognition. Ebadi's Nobel Prize helped establish the model of international recognition as a tool of protection and advocacy that Mohammadi's Nobel Prize extended.

Influenced By

Nelson Mandela

Mandela's example — of sustained commitment to justice through decades of imprisonment, and of the power of non-violent resistance to eventually produce change — has been a reference point for many imprisoned activists including Mohammadi. The comparison is not exact: Mandela's situation was different in important ways. But the fundamental question of how a person maintains their commitment and their humanity through prolonged imprisonment is one that Mohammadi engages with directly in her writing.

Influenced

Nadia Murad

Murad — the Yazidi human rights activist and 2018 Nobel Peace Prize laureate — shares with Mohammadi the experience of using personal testimony of extreme injustice as a tool of advocacy, and of receiving the Nobel Prize as a form of international recognition and solidarity. Both represent a model of activism in which bearing witness — telling the truth about what has happened to you and to others — is itself a form of resistance and a contribution to justice.