Iran Releases Narges Mohammadi on Bail for Medical Treatment

Iranian authorities on Sunday released Nobel Peace Prize winner Narges Mohammadi on bail and transferred her by ambulance to a hospital in Tehran for urgent medical treatment after supporters warned she was at risk of dying in prison. After 10 days of hospitalization in Zanjan in northern Iran where she had been serving her sentence, Mohammadi was granted a sentence suspension on heavy bail.

Her supporters said she had been moved to be treated by her own medical team. The decision came after she suffered two suspected heart attacks behind bars, one on March 24 and another on May 1. " He added that while she is currently hospitalized following a catastrophic health failure, a temporary transfer is not enough and she must never be returned to the conditions that broke her health.

Her supporters had warned last week that the 54-year-old activist was at risk of dying after the heart incidents in Zanjan prison. A Paris-based lawyer said Mohammadi had lost 20 kilograms, had difficulty speaking and was currently unrecognizable from her state before her latest arrest.

Mohammadi already suffered from a heart condition before the latest incidents. After the most recent suspected heart attack she was rushed to hospital in Zanjan but remained under constant guard. Her condition was also affected by the war between Iran and the United States and Israel, with at least three air strikes close to her prison.

A smuggled memoir written by Mohammadi over the past decade details beatings, constant interrogations, deprivation of medical care and long stretches in solitary confinement during her numerous imprisonments. She wrote that there is no hardship worse than illness combined with imprisonment and that authoritarian regimes sometimes simply wait for the human body to fail.

The writings were smuggled out by fellow prisoners and visitors from Evin, Qarchak and Zanjan prisons at considerable risk. Pages or notebooks were discovered and destroyed by prison guards several times, requiring the material to be rewritten. The memoir, which covers her early life, path into activism and years in prison, is scheduled for publication in September.

Mohammadi has been arrested 14 times for her activism. She has been sentenced to a total of 44 years in prison and 154 lashes across multiple convictions. Her work has focused on advancing women's rights, improving prison conditions and ending the use of the death penalty.

She strongly backed the 2022-2023 protests sparked by the death in custody of Iranian Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini but was arrested before the major demonstrations that erupted in January this year. As well as campaigning against capital punishment and the obligatory headscarf for women, she has regularly predicted the downfall of the clerical system that has ruled Iran since the 1979 Islamic revolution.

Most recently she was arrested in December after denouncing the Islamic republic at a funeral for a lawyer. She was released on a temporary sentence suspension in December 2024 after a series of health events but was rearrested a year later and given additional prison time in February.

Her twin teenage children, who live and study in Paris, have not seen their mother for over a decade. They received the Nobel Prize on her behalf while she was in jail. The prize was awarded in 2023 in recognition of her decades of campaigning for human rights in Iran.

Her foundation said Mohammadi needed specialized care and that efforts must ensure she never returns to prison to face the 18 years remaining on her sentence. >"Narges Mohammadi's life hangs in the balance. While she is currently hospitalised following a catastrophic health failure, a temporary transfer is not enough.

" — Taghi Rahmani, May 2026 (France 24) >"There is no hardship worse than illness combined with imprisonment. Authoritarian regimes do not always need an executioner’s rope.