GIWPS Analysis: Iran’s Escalating Political Repression and the Arrest of Narges Mohammadi
Iranian authorities detained 2023 Nobel Peace Prize awardee Narges Mohammadi during a memorial for a human rights lawyer, which she attended while on temporary medical leave from a prior prison sentence tied to her activism against the death penalty and mandatory hijab laws. Her family reported that she was severely beaten and hospitalized twice since being detained.
Mohammadi received the Nobel Peace Prize in recognition of her struggle for women’s rights in Iran and for championing global human rights. It was an honor for us at the Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security to have had her participate in a virtual event on the Iranian women’s movement shortly before she received the Nobel.
Mohammadi’s latest arrest coincides with a year of intensifying political repression. Rights groups and activists, including French-Iranian human rights activist Fahimeh Robiolle, have documented an alarming surge in executions that are taking place in prisons across the country. More than 2,000 people were executed in Iran in 2025–the highest number in 36 years–according to the National Council of Resistance of Iran, with a further spike after the passage of a bill that expands the use of the death penalty for a wide range of offenses.
Today, massive protests are sweeping the country, ignited by economic collapse that compounded ongoing crises, including water and energy shortages and intensifying crackdowns on political dissidents and activists. Iranian women, men, and young people are taking to the streets in defiance of the repressive regime, with calls for political change, economic relief, and protection of fundamental rights echoing many of the demands made by the Women, Life, Freedom movement in 2022.
We join with the Nobel committee and others to call for Mohammadi’s immediate release from detention by security forces and support the countless others who are courageously protesting for a better future and for those who have been victims of the Iranian regime.
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