A memoir written in prison by Narges Mohammadi, the 2023 Nobel Peace Prize laureate, has been smuggled out of Iran and published in German, offering a detailed account of her activism, repeated arrests and the personal cost of challenging Iran’s authorities. The book, “A Woman Never Stops Fighting — My Struggle for Freedom, Democracy and Human Rights in Iran,” arrives as PEN International marks Imprisoned Writer Day on November 15; an English edition is scheduled for September 2027. According to the Narges Mohammadi Foundation Germany, the text was composed under severe restrictions, moved between prisons and reconstructed after notes were lost.
Key Takeaways: Mohammadi has been sentenced to a combined total of more than 44 years in prison and 154 lashes; she has been separated from her twin children, now 19 and living in France, for more than a decade. The German edition has been released, while the English edition is planned for September 2027. The memoir traces her path from student activism and mountaineering to journalism and leadership in Iran’s human rights movement.
The publication adds a new chapter to a case that has drawn international attention to Iran’s judicial and prison practices. Mohammadi was born on April 21, 1972, in Zanjan and became politically active while studying physics at Imam Khomeini University of Qazvin in the 1990s. She organized mixed-gender mountaineering groups, helped establish an independent student organization and advocated political reform—activities that led to repeated harassment and arrests. She began her journalism career in 1996, writing about student and women’s movements, and later became a leading figure in the Defenders of Human Rights Centre founded by 2003 Nobel Peace Prize laureate Shirin Ebadi.
Mariam Claren, spokesperson for the Narges Mohammadi Foundation Germany, told DW that the autobiography “portrays how Narges actually became the woman she is today — and it also reveals the price she had to pay to become that woman.” Claren said Mohammadi was constantly writing in prison, but in 2020 she was forcibly moved to another prison, all her documents disappeared and she had to start over. Her texts were eventually smuggled out in fragments by fellow prisoners and visitors who risked their own safety. Claren’s mother, activist Nahid Taghavi, shared a cell with Mohammadi for two and a half years in Evin prison.
The memoir describes her marriage to political activist Taghi Rahmani in 1998 and the birth of their twins, Ali and Kiana, in 2006. It recounts an arrest in front of her young children, months without the right to call them, and what she describes as constant interrogations, beatings and denial of medical care. Mohammadi also focuses on the psychological effects of solitary confinement, which she previously documented with fellow inmates in a book and documentary. Her first major prison sentence linked to human rights work came in 2011. The book’s release is likely to intensify calls for her freedom, while the planned English edition in 2027 could widen its reach.
Source: www.dw.com