Iran: Authorities must guarantee writer and Noble Peace laureate Narges Mohammadi access to vital healthcare pending release

Photo credit: Narges Mohammadi’s family

3 November: PEN International is deeply concerned that Evin prison authorities have refused to transfer prominent writer, human rights defender and Nobel Peace Laureate Narges Mohammadi to a hospital to receive vital medical care just because she refused to wear a headscarf. PEN International is gravely concerned about her health condition and holds Iranian authorities fully responsible for putting her life at critical risk.

Narges Mohammadi should not be in jail in the first place. PEN International reiterates its call on the Iranian authorities to immediately and unconditionally release Narges Mohammadi, drop all charges against her, and urgently transfer her to a hospital to receive medical treatment. PEN International stresses that Iranian authorities have a responsibility to ensure all those deprived of their freedom have unrestricted access to medical care without discrimination.

According to information provided by Narges Mohammadi’s family, Evin prison authorities denied her repeated requests to be transferred to a hospital to receive vital medical care last week because she does not wear a hijab. On October 29, the prison warden told Mohammadi that he had received orders not to transfer her to a hospital without a headscarf. The following day, she was also denied access to the prison infirmary for an echocardiogram scan for the same reason. However, the prison doctor transferred the scanning device to the women’s ward and conducted the scan following protests by Mohammadi and her fellow detainees. The results showed deterioration in her heart and lung conditions and that she needed urgent medical intervention.

Narges Mohammadi is currently serving a total of ten years, nine months sentence and 154 lashes following unfair trials. Earlier in August 2023, PEN International expressed deep concerns about further retaliatory convictions as Iranian authorities have initiated several investigations into Mohammadi’s activism and writings in prison since January 2023. Mohammadi has been suffering from lung and heart issues, worsened in prison amid poor detention conditions. She has been serving retaliatory sentences over her human rights activism and writings since 2015. She was re-arrested in November 2021, after her release in October 2020 following five and a half years prison term.

In October 2023, PEN International praised the decision by the Nobel Committee to award Narges Mohammadi the 2023 Nobel Peace Prize in recognition of “her fight against the oppression of women in Iran and her fight to promote human rights and freedom for all.”

For more information on Narges Mohammadi’s case history, click here

For more information, please contact Mina Thabet, Head of the MENA Region at PEN International, email: Mina.Thabet@pen-international.org