Iran Denies Medical Care to Jailed Nobel Winner Narges as She Refuses to Wear Hijab

Iranian jail authorities did not allow 2023 Nobel Peace Prize winner Narges Mohammadi’s hospital transfer for urgent medical care as she refused to wear the compulsory hijab, alleged her family.

Her family claimed that her life was at risk as she suffered from heart and lung ailments. However the Iranian prison authorities have refused to transfer Narges to a hospital outside the jail only because she is not ready to wear the hijab over her head. Narges’ family in a statement claimed that her health and life were at risk in the prison.

“Two days and nights, a group of women in Evin protested in the prison yard to send Narges Mohammadi to the heart hospital,” they wrote on her Instagram account.

Iranian human rights activist Narges Mohammadi (51) is now imprisoned in Tehran’s Evin prison. She was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in October “for her fight against the oppression of women in Iran”.

Narges has announced that she would not under any circumstances wear a hijab, which is compulsory for Iranian women in public spaces since Iran’s 1979 Islamic revolution.