Iranian activist and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Narges Mohammadi was hospitalized on Saturday in the cardiology intensive care unit of Zanjan Hospital in northern Iran, where she has been imprisoned since December. His supporters are calling for his release and transfer to Tehran, given his “unstable” state of health.

Published on: 02/05/2026 - 17:26

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Concern is growing over the state of health of Narges Mohammadi. The Iranian activist, Nobel Peace Prize winner detained in Iran since December, was urgently hospitalized after a serious deterioration in her condition, her supporters announced on Saturday May 2. The latter are demanding that she be released and transferred "urgently" to Tehran in order to receive care from her medical team.

The 54-year-old activist was transferred from Zanjan prison, in the north of the country, to a hospital in the region “following a dramatic deterioration in her state of health, marked in particular by two episodes of total loss of consciousness and a heart attack,” her foundation wrote in a press release Friday evening.

His family, quoted in the text, deplores this "desperate, last minute" measure, which "constitutes a direct and immediate threat to his right to life". It could come "too late" after 140 days of imprisonment.

According to her lawyer Mostafa Nili, Narges Mohammadi "fainted after a sudden drop in her blood pressure." After her initial refusal of a transfer for fear of inadequate treatment, she had to be hospitalized after losing consciousness again, with the priority being "the management of her neurological condition".

In a post published on X on Saturday, the Narges Mohammadi Foundation specifies that the activist has joined the hospital's Cardiology Intensive Care Unit. “In order to undergo angiography, obtain an accurate diagnosis and continue specialized treatment, she must be urgently transferred to Tehran and must be able to benefit from the assistance of her own medical team,” adds the foundation.

“His life remains in danger”

In Oslo, the Norwegian Nobel committee also called on Iranian authorities to "immediately" transfer Narges Mohammadi to its medical team in Tehran. “Without such treatment, his life remains in danger,” said the chairman of the Nobel committee, Jørgen Watne Frydnes, in a message to AFP. “His life is now in the hands of the Iranian authorities.”

Her supporters have been calling for her release for weeks in view of her "critical condition", stressing that she has lost around 20 kg.

Narges Mohammadi, whose more than two decades of activism were rewarded with the Nobel Peace Prize in 2023, was arrested on December 12, 2025 in Mashhad, in the east of the country, after criticizing Iranian religious authorities during a funeral ceremony.

Also read: Iran: Narges Mohammadi, arrested by the authorities to “cut short any convergence of struggles”

In February, she was sentenced to an additional six years in prison for endangering national security and a year and a half in prison for propaganda against Iran's Islamic system.

Narges Mohammadi was then transferred to Zanjan Prison and allowed extremely limited communication with her family.

Over the past 25 years, the activist has been repeatedly imprisoned for her commitment against the death penalty and the strict dress code imposed on Iranian women.

With AFP

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