Narges Mohammadi Transferred to Hospital After Fainting in Zanjan Prison

Iranian Nobel Peace Prize laureate Narges Mohammadi was transferred from Zanjan prison to a hospital in Zanjan on May 3, 2026, after fainting twice that day. According to the Narges Mohammadi Foundation, the 53-year-old activist experienced two episodes of complete loss of consciousness.

Prison doctors determined her condition could not be managed on-site and ordered her admission to the cardiac care unit, where her blood pressure continued to fluctuate.

Her lawyer, Mostafa Nili, stated that in recent days her blood pressure had experienced severe fluctuations, going very high and low, and she suddenly fainted due to a sudden drop in blood pressure. After the first fainting, the prison doctor injected her with drugs.

Mohammadi refused hospital transfer at that point and demanded to see her cardiologist. A few hours later she fainted again, after which a neurologist ordered her immediate transfer.

The transfer followed a heart attack she suffered in late March 2026. Fellow inmates found her unconscious on March 24, 2026. A doctor at the prison clinic told her she probably had a heart attack. Mohammadi had chest pain and breathing difficulties afterward.

Her family and lawyer requested transfer to specialist care in Tehran on the advice of her medical team, but the public prosecutor in Zanjan referred the matter to his counterpart in Tehran. A medical official in Zanjan had recommended a one-month suspension of her sentence for treatment.

Mohammadi was arrested on December 12, 2025, in Mashhad after giving a speech at a memorial ceremony for a fellow human rights activist. She was sentenced to 10 years in prison in December 2025 on charges of threatening national security. A Revolutionary Court in Mashhad sentenced her to an additional seven-and-a-half years in early February 2026 for gathering and collusion and propaganda activities.

She was transferred without warning to Zanjan prison the week after that sentencing.

Prior to the December 2025 arrest, Mohammadi had been on medical furlough since late 2024 due to ongoing poor health. During the furlough she resumed public protests and international media appearances, including demonstrating in front of Tehran’s Evin Prison.

She had been serving a sentence of 13 years and nine months on charges of collusion against state security and propaganda against the government before the furlough. Over her lifetime she has been arrested 13 times, sentenced to a total of 31 years in prison and 154 lashes.

She is currently serving an 18-year prison sentence.

Mohammadi won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2023 while in prison. She had previously suffered multiple heart attacks while imprisoned and underwent emergency surgery in 2022. She has a history of cardiac, lung and blood pressure problems, including pulmonary embolism, stenting and angiography.

Her brother Hamidreza Mohammadi said her family in Iran is doing everything they can. He added that her blood pressure had dropped sharply and they had not been able to stabilize it. Her legal representative in France, Chirinne Ardakani, and her husband also confirmed details of the March 2026 heart attack and subsequent events.

No publicly released court filing or agency statement in the sources details the Iranian authorities’ specific rationale for the timing of her re-imprisonment or the denial of the requested Tehran transfer.