Iranian activist and Nobel Peace Prize winner Narges Mohammadi shares her story in memoir

As PEN International marks Imprisoned Writer Day on November 15, a memoir by 2023 Nobel Peace Prize laureate Narges Mohammadi stands as a powerful act of resistance against authoritarian regimes. "A Woman Never Stops Fighting — My Struggle for Freedom, Democracy and Human Rights in Iran," was recently published in German and is set to be released in English in September 2027. The autobiography "portrays how Narges actually became the woman she is today — and it also reveals the price she had to pay to become that woman," Mariam Claren, spokesperson for the Narges Mohammadi Foundation Germany told DW. Texts smuggled out of prison in fragments Mohammadi wrote the autobiography in prison: "She was constantly writing," says Claren, whose own mother, activist Nahid Taghavi, shared a cell with Mohammadi for two and a half years, in Iran's notorious Evin prison. "Then, in 2020, Narges was forcibly moved to another prison. All her documents were gone. And she had to start all over." But she managed to rewrite it all, and her texts were smuggled out of prison in fragments by fellow prisoners and visitors who risked their own safety. In her memoir, Mohammadi recounts pivotal moments in her life, including her childhood and youth, how she started taking action against gender discrimination, political repression, the death penalty and human rights abuses, and the personal and emotional toll of her activism. The human rights activist has been sentenced to a combined total of more than 44 years in prison and 154 lashes. For more than a decade, she has been separated from her twin children, who are now 19 years old and live in exile in France for their own protection. The memoir, already available in German, will be published next year in English How Narges Mohammadi became a human rights activist Born on April 21, 1972, in Zanjan, Iran, Narges Mohammadi became politically active while studying in physics at Imam Khomeini University of Qazvin in the 1990s. In "A Woman Never Stops Fighting," she describes how she started mountain climbing as a student, and organized mixed-gender groups dedicated to mountaineering — a controversial initiative at the time. She also helped establish an independent student organization and advocated for political reform. Her activities led to repeated harassment and arrests by authorities. She began her journalism career in 1996, writing about Iran's student and women's movements. As her public profile grew, she became increasingly involved in Iran's civil society and human rights community. In 1998, she married political activist Taghi Rahmani. The couple's twins, Ali and Kiana, were born in 2006. Over the course of her career, Mohammadi worked with some of Iran's most prominent human rights organizations and became a leading figure in the Defenders of Human Rights Centre, founded by 2003 Nobel Peace Prize laureate Shirin Ebadi. She played a key role in initiatives promoting free elections, peace and the abolition of the death penalty, especially for juvenile offenders. She also helped establish organizations supporting political prisoners and advocating for women's rights. Her first major prison sentence related to her human rights activities came in 2011. It marked the beginning of a cycle of arrests and prosecutions that would define much of her adult life. In her memoir, she describes an arrest that took place in front of her young children. At one point during her imprisonment, she lost the right to call them for several months. She also details the brutal treatment she experienced in prison, with constant interrogations, beatings and denial of medical care. Another central focus of her activism is denouncing the psychological effects of solitary confinement, which she had previously documented with fellow inmates in her book and documentary project "White Torture." "When someone is subjected to physical torture, the scars, blood and infections — dreadful as they may be — serve as visible witnesses," she writes in her memoir. But, she adds, "when someone is subjected to psychological torture, no visible traces remain, and the victim cannot justify the trauma — neither to themselves nor to others. In fact, it becomes virtually impossible to even accept that one has been tortured at all, which causes the suffering to continue indefinitely." "This is also the goal of solitary confinement: to bring the imprisoned person to the very edge of nothingness — to strip them of their identity and of everything that makes them human," she writes. Through her relentless campaigning against executions and state violence, she helped bring these issues to the forefront of public debate among Iranian activists. Nobel Prize intensified authorities' pressure on her International recognition of her work culminated in October 2023 when she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for "for her fight against the oppression of women in Iran and her fight to promote human rights and freedom for all." As Mohammadi was unable to attend the ceremony because she remained imprisoned in Tehran's Evin Prison, the award was accepted on her behalf by her teenage twins, who delivered her message to the world. Kiana and Ali Rahmani accepting the Nobel Prize on their mother's behalfImage: Sergei Gapon/Anadolu/IMAGO Following the Nobel Prize, Iranian authorities continued to pursue new legal cases against her, restrict her communications and intensify pressure on her from prison. She became the target of a systematic smear campaign, including widespread defamation, gender-based harassment and explicit death threats. "We are firmly convinced that the Islamic Republic of Iran has deployed its cyber army — which is the second-largest, after Russia's — to this end," says Claren of the Narges Mohammadi Foundation. Conspiracy theorists even started claiming she might be working for the regime, she adds: "And what is truly terrible about this is that when a lie is repeated over and over again and spread over the course of years, it eventually leads even ordinary people to start believing it." In late 2024, following surgery, Mohammadi was granted a temporary medical release. Doctors warned at the time that a return to prison could seriously endanger her health. Nevertheless, Mohammadi was brutally arrested again in December 2025, while attending a memorial ceremony for Khosrow Alikordi, a lawyer and human rights activist who died in suspicious circumstances. In prison, she was held in solitary confinement for an extended period and her health continued to deteriorate, Claren reports. But "thanks to a public campaign, she has now been granted what is known as an interruption of detention for medical reasons." But "that doesn't mean she is free," adds Claren, who notes that she still suffers from serious health problems — as do many Iranians who have been tortured in prison. Mohammadi's health sharply deteriorated and she was transferred to a hospital in MayImage: Narges Foundation Archive/AP Photo/picture alliance In February, an Iranian court ordered additional prison sentences for Mohammadi, along with a travel ban. Mohammadi lives in constant fear of having to return to prison any day, notes Claren, and "this all comes with the pressure to which Iranian civil society — including, of course, people like Narges — is currently subjected, with questions like: Will Trump launch an attack, yes or no? Will there be another war?" Despite this uncertainty, Mohammadi continues her activism. Her international profile also helps her supporters keep addressing publicly the issue of human rights in Iran in the public eye, says Claren: "It is incredibly important that, alongside the individual Narges Mohammadi, the focus also remains consistently on the struggle of the people in Iran for freedom, dignity, and fundamental rights — for the right to sing and dance."