Narges Mohammadi Hospitalized After Health Crisis in Zanjan

Narges Mohammadi was urgently transferred from prison to a hospital in northwestern Iran on Friday after a health crisis that left the imprisoned rights lawyer with two episodes of complete loss of consciousness and a severe cardiac crisis. She had fainted twice earlier in the day in Zanjan, where prison doctors later said her condition could not be managed on-site.

Zanjan transfer after two fainting episodes

The Narges Mohammadi Foundation said the transfer came after 140 days of systematic medical neglect since her arrest on Dec. 12. The foundation said Mohammadi, 53, should be treated by her specialized team in Tehran and described the move to a hospital in Zanjan as a desperate, “last-minute” action that may be too late to address her critical needs.

Her brother, Hamidreza Mohammadi, said the family is “fighting for her life,” and added: “My family in Iran is doing everything they can. But the prosecutors in Zanjan are blocking everything,” after sending an audio message on Friday. The foundation said prison doctors determined her condition could not be managed on-site, and her legal team said the hospital transfer followed weeks of efforts to get her treated outside the prison.

March 24 unconsciousness in prison

The latest transfer followed earlier warning signs. On March 24, fellow inmates found Mohammadi unconscious, and her lawyers said a prison doctor later told her she probably had had a heart attack. Her lawyers said she later told them that fellow inmates had found her unconscious, and they said she experienced chest pain and breathing difficulties after that incident.

Her legal representative in France, Chirinne Ardakani, said she had been “denied transfer to the hospital or to visit her cardiologist,” while lawyer Mostafa Nili wrote on X that her blood pressure had swung sharply and that she suddenly fainted after a sudden drop. Her family said in February that her health was worsening in prison in part because of a beating she endured during her arrest in December, when multiple men hit and kicked her in her side, head and neck.

Iran, Tehran and the prison case

Mohammadi won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2023 while in prison, making her case one of the most prominent prison-health emergencies in Iran. The Nobel committee condemned the “ongoing life-threatening mistreatment” of Mohammadi in February, after her family and lawyers had been seeking medical care for weeks.

Her arrest in December took place during a visit to the eastern Iranian city of Mashhad, and she was sentenced to seven more years in prison. Friday’s transfer leaves her under hospital care in Zanjan, with her family pressing for treatment by the specialized team in Tehran and for the prosecutors in Zanjan to stop blocking access to care.