Nobel laureate Narges Mohammadi warns Iran is increasingly repressing its own citizens

[ad_1] One among Iran's most distinguished human rights advocates is warning that the Iranian authorities is utilizing the aftermath of its 12-day conflict with Israel to escalate repression in opposition to its personal residents -- significantly political and civil activists.

Nobel Peace Prize laureate Narges Mohammadi, in a video message to ABC Information, warned {that a} surge in executions and widespread arrests for the reason that conflict started exhibits that the regime is utilizing the second to deflect from a long time of alleged repression and failed coverage, with the goal to "unfold concern and terror."

"We are actually witnessing the intensification of the conflict between the Islamic Republic and the folks of Iran -- a conflict that is been happening for 46 years," Mohammadi mentioned.

Whereas Iranian authorities have publicly celebrated what they name a "victory" over Israel, Mohammadi rejects that declare.

"I merely do not imagine this," she mentioned. "Conflict weakens the very instruments wanted to realize human rights and democracy -- like civil society. I imagine that with the Islamic Republic nonetheless in energy after this conflict, our work and our struggle have now turn into much more troublesome."

She warned that the regime, "now weakened," has tightened its grip on civil liberties, turning on alleged traitors from inside.

Iranian authorities, whereas acknowledging injury to components of their nuclear amenities and infrastructure, insist they continue to be sturdy and unified. State-affiliated media have framed the current wave of arrests and executions as crucial measures to guard nationwide safety, alleging infiltration and espionage linked to Israel's Mossad intelligence company.

Nobel laureate Narges Mohammadi is seen on this picture from a video message to ABC Information.

ABC Information

Mohammadi spoke from her dwelling in Tehran, the place she is defying a authorities order to return to Iran's infamous Evin Jail following pressing, life-saving surgical procedure. Mohammadi, who's serving a 13-year, 9-month sentence, was granted a medical furlough from the jail, the place lots of the nation's dissidents and political prisoners are held.

She and different activists have expressed specific concern over the situation and destiny of Evin's prisoners following Israel's June 23 missile strike on the power. In accordance with Iran's judiciary spokesperson, a minimum of 71 folks had been killed within the strike, which the United Nations Human Rights Workplace condemned as a "gross violation" of worldwide legislation. Israeli Protection Minister Israel Katz mentioned Israel hit "regime targets and companies of presidency repression" throughout Tehran, together with Evin.

Whereas Mohammadi additionally condemned the strike, she warned that what has adopted could pose an excellent better human rights risk.

Mohammadi, who was on furlough on the time of the assault, informed ABC Information she has spoken extensively with prisoners and their households.

"After the assault, the state of affairs inside Evin grew to become extraordinarily securitized," mentioned Mohammadi, who all informed has been handed greater than 36 years of jail time on a number of expenses together with committing “propaganda exercise in opposition to the state” and “collusion in opposition to state safety" -- vaguely outlined nationwide safety offenses generally utilized by authorities to criminalize peaceable dissent.

"Prisoner transfers are actually taking place below closely militarized circumstances." Mohammadi mentioned, "with full sniper protection [and prisoners] shackled with each handcuffs and leg irons."

On this image obtained from the Iranian Mizan Information Company on June 25, 2025, rescuers sift by way of the rubble inside within the Evin jail complicated in Tehran, Iran, that was by an Israeli strike.

Mostafa Roudaki/mizanonline/AFP through Getty Photographs

Following days of uncertainty, Iran's Prisons Group introduced that detainees had been transferred to different prisons throughout Tehran Province. State media reported that many had been moved to amenities together with Qarchak Jail and Larger Tehran Jail.

"The state of affairs inside each prisons is extraordinarily worrying," Mohammadi mentioned, describing the transferred inmates as "war-affected detainees" now subjected to what she known as "extreme repression."

A supply near the households of a number of political prisoners, who requested that their identify not be used because of concern of reprisals, informed ABC Information that circumstances in Qarchak Jail are "insufferable" and "akin to torture," citing overcrowding, a scarcity of meals and ingesting water, poor sanitation, and inadequate entry to primary requirements.

Three political prisoners -- Golrokh Iraee, Reyhaneh Ansari and Varisheh Moradi -- issued a joint assertion from Qarchak Jail, saying, "We don't think about immediately's struggling of our personal to be better than the struggling imposed on the folks of Iran."

Mohammadi informed ABC Information that she is asking for renewed worldwide scrutiny of Iran's remedy of its personal residents.

"I imagine our state of affairs has turn into much more harmful for the folks than it was earlier than the conflict, and we should increase our human rights actions," she mentioned. "I hope worldwide human rights organizations will refocus their particular and specific consideration on the repressions now being carried out in Iran after the conflict -- together with the problem of arrests, prisons, torture, pressured confessions, after which the executions."

Mohammadi additionally warned that primarily based on "clear proof and experiences," she expects that the federal government's crackdown on civil society, significantly younger folks and activists, is more likely to "turn into much more extreme" within the coming days.

Regardless of the regime's efforts to silence dissent, Mohammadi mentioned she stays dedicated to her activism, at the same time as stress mounts on her, her household, and pals. A member of her help staff informed ABC Information that she has obtained repeated cellphone calls demanding her return to jail, and that intelligence brokers have summoned, interrogated, and harassed her family and friends in what seems to be an effort to isolate her.

Her staff additionally says Iranian monetary authorities issued an official order to grab Mohammadi's Nobel Peace Prize award cash -- 17 billion toman or roughly USD $400,000 -- echoing an analogous tactic used in opposition to fellow Nobel laureate Shirin Ebadi in 2009.

"I wish to see an finish to the Islamic Republic -- a repressive, theocratic, and authoritarian system that's misogynistic, unreformable, and essentially dysfunctional," Mohammadi's mentioned. "However I'm in opposition to conflict -- as a result of it drains the energy and capability of the Iranian folks, civil society, and pro-democracy activists."

Nonetheless, she stays hopeful.

"For many years, we have been combating for freedom, democracy, and equality -- enduring repression, imprisonment, executions, and torture. However we have by no means backed down," she mentioned. "Till the day democracy is achieved -- I can't cease."