Mohammadi was arrested before protests erupted nationwide later in December. The movement peaked in January, with authorities launching a crackdown that activists say has left thousands dead.
Earlier this month, she was handed a further six years in prison on charges of harming national security and a one-and-a-half-year prison sentence for propaganda against Iran’s Islamic system.
Over the past quarter of a century, Mohammadi, 53, has been repeatedly tried and jailed for her campaigning against Iran’s use of capital punishment and the mandatory dress code for women.
Mohammadi was born in Zanjan but lived in Tehran. Her foundation said she had, on two occasions during previous jail stints, been transferred to Zanjan prison where she suffered ill treatment.
Her husband Taghi Rahmani, who has lived in exile since 2012, said he last spoke to his wife, who lives in Tehran, the night before she left for Mashhad.
She was attending a memorial there for a human rights lawyer who had died the previous week under unclear circumstances. At the memorial, plainclothes members of the security forces began to assault Mohammadi before she had finished her speech, according to her husband.
He said multiple men hit and kicked her in her side, head and neck.
Details of her deteriorating condition have come from released detainees who had been held alongside Mohammadi in Mashhad, Rahmani said.
“HER PHYSICAL CONDITION IS VERY SEVERE”
“Collectively, this information shows her physical condition is very severe because of the hits she got, her bruised body,” he said, adding that her heart condition had worsened.
Mohammadi suffered multiple heart attacks while imprisoned before undergoing emergency surgery in 2022, her supporters say. Her lawyer in late 2024 revealed doctors found a bone lesion they feared could be cancerous, which was later removed.
“Our main concern about Narges is her illnesses,” Rahmani said. He said three of her four coronary arteries are constricted, and she has pulmonary problems. “These illnesses she has gotten from being in prison. When she is in prison, it isn’t possible to take care of her health,” he said.
Nationwide protests began to spread around Iran, culminating in marches by hundreds of thousands on January 8 to 9, until they were crushed by a heavy government crackdown. Rights groups have so far counted more than 7000 dead, and say the true number is likely far higher; the government has put the toll at more than 3,100 dead.
Rahmani said conditions for political prisoners in Iran have continued to deteriorate amid the suppression of the latest protests. The crackdown is the deadliest since the Islamic Republic was created in 1979.
“In these 47 years, the Islamic Republic hadn’t killed people to this extent. This is a flagrant crime. People very clearly want to put the Islamic Republic behind them,” Rahmani said. “They want a republic, they want democracy.”