Iranian Nobel laureate Mohammadi said to be deteriorating sharply

TEHRAN, Iran - The health of Iranian Nobel Peace Prize laureate Narges Mohammadi has deteriorated significantly due to progress of a vascular disease, her foundation said in a statement on Wednesday.

Mohammadi, who has been imprisoned in the Iranian city of Zanjan, was transferred to a Tehran hospital on Sunday.

The medical team treating Mohammadi has announced that "a part of the central nervous system in the brain responsible for autonomic control and precise regulation of blood pressure has suffered functional impairment," the foundation said in a statement.

The 54-year-old is currently hospitalized in a cardiac care unit and her doctors have stressed that she "must not return to the prison environment due to her physical inability to endure further stressful conditions," the foundation said.

Mohammadi was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2023 for her fight against the oppression of women and the death penalty in Iran, as well as for her commitment to human rights and freedom.

As she was imprisoned when she won the award, her children accepted it on her behalf.

Mohammadi was sentenced to an additional six years in prison in February for conspiracy and one and a half years for propaganda activities. As an additional punishment, she was banned from leaving the country for two years.

According to her lawyer, Mohammadi has long suffered from cardiac arrhythmia.

She spent a week in intensive care in Zanjan after collapsing in her cell, before being transferred to Tehran, according to her foundation.

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This story was originally published May 13, 2026 at 1:48 PM.