International Women's Day: Human Rights Activist Narges Mohammadi

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Narges Mohammadi, an Iranian human rights activist and Nobel Peace Prize nominee.

On International Women's Day, the Iranian Students' Association introduces Narges Mohammadi, human rights activist, journalist and Nobel Peace Prize nominee for 2023. She was born in Zanjan in 1972, and she is vice president of the Defenders of Human Rights Center in Iran and has tirelessly campaigned to abolish the death penalty.

During the most recent demonstrations in Iran, she sent a letter from Evin Prison, the notorious prison that has been accused of committing "serious human rights abuses" against its political dissidents and critics of the government, tasking the United Nations to stop the Iranian government from issuing the death penalty to protesters. In 2010 Mohammadi was sentenced to 11 years in prison — later increased to 16 years after she gave a speech, while on bail, criticizing the treatment of inmates. Her documentary White Torture examines solitary confinement, based on interviews with 16 former prisoners.

She is one of many Iranian female human rights activists. You can also get to know more of them on this Instagram profile, or while walking toward the Arkansas Union, you can see their pictures on the posters planted to the ground and read about them.

This article was produced by the Iranian Students' Association RSO at the U of A as part of Women's History Month.