No Phone Calls, No Visits: Punitive Measures Against Jailed Iranian Nobel Winner Extended

For more than two months, Iranian authorities have deprived Narges Mohammadi, an imprisoned human rights activist and 2023 Nobel Peace Prize laureate, of her right to telephone calls and visits, her family says.

The restrictions were imposed in retribution for “her activities within the prison & sending letters outside,” reads a statement posted on Mohammadi’s Instagram account.

“As of 29 Nov 2023, Narges Mohammadi’s phone calls & visits have been cut off by prison authorities,” the statement says. 

“It had been arranged that from February 4th, 2024, her phone calls and visits would resume, but the head of the women’s ward in [Tehran’s] Evin prison has declared a new deprivation.”

Mohammadi is serving multiple sentences amounting to 12 years and three months in prison, 154 lashes, two years of exile and various social and political restrictions.

While behind the bars, she has continued accusing the authorities of systematic rights violations and remained a vocal opponent of mandatory hijab.

In a letter addressed to UN Secretary-General António Guterres last month, Mohammadi urged the world body to “declare gender and sex apartheid as a crime against humanity in international legal documents.”

“For decades, Iranian women’s lives have faced various forms of sex and gender-based discrimination under the shadow of the Islamic Republic government,” the activist wrote behind the walls of Evin prison.

“Systematically and purposefully, the Islamic Republic has advanced the subjugation of women through the use of all instruments and powers of the state, particularly through legislation, perpetuating the denial of women's human rights.”