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AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman.
In a moment, we’re going to Providence, Rhode Island, to talk about the mass shooting at Brown University. But first, international pressure is mounting to urge Iran to release Nobel Peace laureate Narges Mohammadi, one of Iran’s most prominent human rights activists. She was rearrested Friday when Iranian authorities violently raided a memorial ceremony she attended at a mosque in Iran’s northeastern city of Mashhad. Narges Mohammadi was reportedly hospitalized — twice — after Iranian forces beat and tear-gassed the crowd of memorial attendees. The memorial was for the Iranian human rights lawyer and activist Khosrow Alikordi, whose suspicious death earlier this month prompted calls for an independent investigation.
Mohammadi’s husband, Taghi Rahmani, who lives in exile in Paris with their children, told The New York Times Narges’s whereabouts are still unknown. “We are extremely worried,” he said. The Norwegian Nobel Committee condemned her arrest, demanding Iranian authorities to, quote, “immediately clarify Mohamed’s whereabouts, ensure her safety and integrity, and to release her without conditions,” unquote.
Narges Mohammadi has spent much of the past more than 10 years of her life in prison, most recently after she was arrested in 2021. She was accused, among other charges, of threatening Iran’s national security and spreading propaganda against the state for her decadeslong work fighting for human rights, women’s rights and democracy in Iran. She was furloughed from Tehran’s notorious Evin Prison last December after suffering several heart attacks.
While Mohammadi was still in prison in 2023, she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. This is Narges Mohammadi in her own words, speaking in a video released by Amnesty International in 2021.
NARGES MOHAMMADI: Hello to my colleagues and friends in Amnesty. Today, I can send this video message to you, and without your protection, it wouldn’t have been possible. I hope one day to be able to tell you that executions have stopped in Iran and that women in my country have got their rights and that we have a better human rights situation in Iran. My goal is to achieve peace and human rights. I am determined to try more than before. I’m sure, with our efforts, perseverance in Iran and with your human rights colleagues’ protections, we will win, all together for peace and human rights.
AMY GOODMAN: Since Narges Mohammadi’s rearrest, a video clip of her without the mandatory hijab, standing on top of a car, chanting “Long live Iran!” to a crowd, has gone viral on social media. Earlier this month, Narges published an opinion piece in Time headlined “Iran Is Still at War — With Its People.”
For more, we’re joined in our studio by Porochista Khakpour, Iranian American author and essayist. Her most recent book is Tehrangeles: A Novel.
Welcome to Democracy Now! Tell us who Narges is and why she has been arrested and rearrested over and over again, and her condition when she came out, and what she just did, in speaking at a memorial for another human rights activist, who died in his office.
POROCHISTA KHAKPOUR: Yeah, Narges Mohammadi is Iran’s most courageous and most consistent human rights activist. She’s been around for decades. She started this when she was in college. So, we’ve all kind of grown up with her in our consciousness. And, of course, in 2023, she was awarded the Nobel Prize. She’s a huge source of pride and joy for all Iranians. And one of the things that’s amazing about her is, when Iranian — when there was a global awakening around Iran during the “Woman, Life, Freedom” protests, she was actually still in prison, and she orchestrated a lot of her activism from there.
So, she’s been seen as a huge threat to the Islamic Republic’s regime. They find her moral authority extremely intimidating. And so, it’s really no surprise that at the memorial of another great human rights activist and lawyer, that this would happen. It’s just the nature of this particular arrest, it’s been reported, was particularly brutal. There were some eyewitnesses that said it was extremely violent, which is why her condition has been more concerning than ever for people.
AMY GOODMAN: Is that the video that we see that has gone viral? Was that her speaking at the memorial?
POROCHISTA KHAKPOUR: There is that video, but there seems to be even more eyewitness accounts that we’re not seeing the videos of. And there’s people reporting batons and blood and hair pulling, I mean, things that are pretty extreme.
And this is — you have to realize, this is in Mashhad, which is a holy city. This is where the Imam Reza Shrine is. This is Iran’s most second populous city. It’s a pretty major place. This is where his office was. But it’s also symbolic in a lot of ways. So, there were lots of other people that were also arrested, other activists, but her arrest seems particularly calculated.
AMY GOODMAN: I wanted to go back to 2023, when Narges won the Nobel Peace Prize. But, of course, she was jailed at the time, so her children accepted the Nobel Peace Prize on behalf of their mother at a ceremony in Oslo, Norway. It was on December 10th, just two years ago. Her 17-year-old twins, Kiana and Ali Rahmani, who live in France, read their mother’s speech, which was smuggled out of Tehran’s Evin Prison at the time. This is Ali.
ALI RAHMANI: [translated] The reality is that the regime of the Islamic Republic is at its lowest level of legitimacy and popular support, situated in a position of unstable equilibrium, and the emergence of any element as a catalyst for change will mark the final form of opposition policies and the transition from religious tyranny.
AMY GOODMAN: So, if you can talk more about Narges? And in this last time she was in prison, before now, she suffered several heart attacks. How old is she?
POROCHISTA KHAKPOUR: She’s about seven years older than me. She’s in her early fifties, so she’s quite young. In addition to her heart attacks, there’s also been reports of cancer. She’s had some major surgeries. A lot of these injuries seem to come from her time in prison. So, that’s — you know, it’s sort of extra devastating that this was during her one-year medical leave from prison. We don’t — and the fact that she’s — we know that she’s been brutally beaten in some way, too, so that just makes it extra concerning.
AMY GOODMAN: And can you talk about the man who she was essentially risking her life for — now, he’s dead, right? — Khosrow Alikordi, a well-known Iranian human rights lawyer and activist, why she was in Mashhad remembering him?
POROCHISTA KHAKPOUR: Yeah. Prior to this episode, our communities were all fixated on the death of Khosrow Alikordi, because his death was extremely suspicious. They claimed that this was a cardiac event of some sort, but, again, witnesses saw something different. They saw blood. They saw other forms of trauma that indicate something else happened. So, while everybody was memorializing him — and he was an incredible human rights activist. I mean, he’s 46 years old, brilliant guy, a very promising future, and had worked closely with Narges and lots of other human rights activists. We were all — our attention was there, and so, then, this event at the memorial.
And it’s not unusual for the Islamic Republic to surveil grief. So, for this to happen at this memorial, unfortunately, isn’t, you know, an unprecedented event, but it just speaks to how really disturbing and disgusting the regime is in how they go about their business.
AMY GOODMAN: Well, I want to thank you for being with us, Porochista Khakpour, Iranian American author and essayist. Her most recent book is Tehrangeles: A Novel. Again, Narges Mohammadi, one of Iran’s most prominent human rights activists, Nobel Peace laureate, has been rearrested. We’ll continue to follow that case.
Coming up, we go to Brown, Brown University, where a gunman shot dead two students and injured nine others. You’ll meet a Brown sophomore, Mia Tretta. She survived this shooting, but in high school she was shot in the stomach in Santa Clarita, California. From that point on, she became a gun control activist, until she came to Brown and has experienced what happened this weekend. Stay with us.
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AMY GOODMAN: Zeshan B’s rendition of “A Change Is Gonna Come,” performed in our Democracy Now! studio.
