Change in Iran 'irreversible': Narges Mohammadi

Narges Mohammadi retains hope for change in Iran despite her own imprisonment, citing the ongoing protests and the weakening of religious authority. She criticizes Western appeasement of Iran's leaders and the cost of her activism, which has kept her from her children for eight years.

Rights campaigner and 2023 Nobel Peace laureate Narges Mohammadi said in a September interview with AFP that she retained hope for change in Iran, despite having no prospect of release from prison and enduring the pain of separation from her family.

In the interview, where Mohammadi gave written answers to AFP from Evin prison in Tehran, she insisted the protest movement that erupted one year ago in Iran against the Islamic republic is still alive.

First arrested 22 years ago, Mohammadi, 51, has spent much of the past two decades in and out of jail over her unstinting campaigning for human rights in Iran. She has most recently been incarcerated since November 2021 and has not seen her children for eight years.

While she could only witness from behind bars the protests that broke out following the death on September 16, 2022 of Mahsa Amini — who had been arrested for violating Iran's strict dress rules for women — she said the movement made clear the levels of dissatisfaction in society.

"The government was not able to break the protests of the people of Iran and I believe that society has achieved things that have weakened the foundations of religious-authoritarian rule," she told AFP.

Noting that Iran had even before September 2022 seen repeated protest outbreaks, she added: "We have seen cycles of protests in recent years and this shows the irreversible nature of the situation and the scope for the expansion of the protests."

She said that after "44 years of oppression, discrimination and continuous repression of the government against women in public and personal life" the protests had "accelerated the process of realising democracy, freedom and equality in Iran".