06 May 2026 :
May 5, 2026 - IRAN. Nobel winner Mohammadi ‘between life and death’ after hospitalisation
A support committee for Narges Mohammadi, who is imprisoned in Iran, said on Tuesday, May 5, that she was “between life and death”.
Mohammadi’s deteriorating health has raised the worst fears among those close to her.
Now in her early 50s, Mohammadi won the 2023 Nobel Peace Prize while in detention for her campaign in favour of women’s rights and the abolition of the death penalty in Iran. She suffered a suspected heart attack in late March and was taken to a hospital in northwestern Iran on May 1 amid rapidly deteriorating health, her family has said.
“We are not just fighting for the freedom of Narges, we are fighting so that her heart continues to beat,” said her Paris-based lawyer Chirinne Ardakani at a news conference of her supporters.
Jonathan Dagher of Paris-based press freedom group Reporters Without Borders (RSF), which is also part of her support committee, said: “This is the 1st time we are saying that she is between life and death, that there is a risk of death.”
“We must act before it is too late,” he added.
Mohammadi, who has spent much of the past two decades in and out of prison for her activism, was arrested most recently in December after denouncing the Islamic republic at a funeral for a lawyer.
Mohammadi is experiencing an “unprecedented degradation” of her health, said Ardakani.
“We have never been so afraid for Narges’s life; she could leave us at any moment,” she added.
Mohammadi has lost 20 kilogrammes (44 pounds) in prison, has difficulty speaking and is currently “unrecognisable” from her former state before her latest arrest.
Her supporters want Mohammadi to be transferred to Tehran for treatment by her personal medical team but there has been no sign of her being moved from Zanjan.
Mohammadi’s twin teenage children and her husband live in Paris and Ardakani urged the French foreign ministry and President Emmanuel Macron to take a tougher line on her case.
