Iran Arrests Nobel Laureate Narges Mohammadi Amid Broader Crackdown

The Iranian Nobel Peace Prize laureate and rights activist Narges Mohammadi was arrested on Friday in a raid at a memorial in the country’s east, according to the authorities and her family.
Security agents raided a mosque in the city of Mashhad where the ceremony was being held and detained Ms. Mohammadi along with at least nine other well-known activists, said Taghi Rahmani, Ms. Mohammadi’s husband, in a telephone interview.
“We don’t know where Narges and the rest of them are; we haven’t heard from them since they took them — no phone call, no clear answer from authorities,” said Mr. Rahmani, who lives in exile in Paris with the couple’s teenage children.
“We are extremely worried,” he continued.
The Nobel Committee said in a statement on Friday that it was “deeply concerned” by the arrests, and called on “the Iranian authorities to immediately clarify Mohammadi’s whereabouts, ensure her safety and integrity, and to release her without conditions.”
Videos published by an Iranian news outlet showed security forces, dressed in black police uniforms, waving batons while seated outside the event on motorcycles. The crowd can be heard screaming and shouting curses at the officers as passing cars honk.
Ms. Mohammadi, 53, was sentenced to 10 years in prison on charges of threatening national security for her decades of work promoting human rights, women’s rights and democracy in Iran. In 2023 while she was still imprisoned, the Nobel Committee awarded her the Peace Prize, saying it was a recognition of “her fight against the oppression of women in Iran and her fight to promote human rights and freedom for all.”
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