“Let us hope for victory” – Narges Mohammadi’s message to RSF in 2022 still resonates

Journalist Narges Mohammadi won on 12 December 2022, the RSF  Prize for Courage. During the awards ceremony in Paris, her two children read the letter she sent to RSF from her cell in Evin prison, near Tehran, where she has been held since 16 November 2021.

This letter illustrates the courage and determination displayed by Mohammadi, who made a documentary entitled “White Torture: inside Iran's prisons for women” and wrote a book with the same name denouncing sexual violence against female detainees in Iran. She continues to wage this fight from prison, regularly writing letters informing the world about the terrible conditions in Iran’s prisons.

RSF is publishing these words, which she addressed in 2022 to those attending the RSF Press Freedom Awards, because they continue to resonate today.

“Reporters Without Borders,

I am very happy that you have given me the opportunity to write you a message, and I am proud that this message is being heard by free speech defenders.

I am writing this message surrounded by more than 60 political prisoners, in Evin prison, at a time when my country is overwhelmed by protests and street uprisings, and by the government’s crackdowns and violence.

For years, the Iranian people have paid a high price to assert their fundamental rights, to fight against authoritarianism and theocracy. But unfortunately, instead of responding to the people’s demands, the government resorts to crackdowns, summary executions, imprisonment, arrests, dismissals – particularly within the education sector – torture, prison sentences and solitary confinement to extract baseless confessions for television broadcasts and for subsequent trials by illegal courts subservient to the security forces. The oppression of women is part of the identity, ideology and strategy of this authoritarian theocratic government.

This is why we are today witnessing street uprisings and demonstrations to demand a real transition away from the Islamic Republic of Iran and an attempt to restore its democracy and human rights.

Today, we have reached the point where women are losing their lives for asserting their right to choose how they dress. How, in this context, can we talk about freedom of expression? In a country where men and women spend years demanding the freedom to express their opinions, talking about freedom is a dream.

In this country, amid all the suffering, all the fears and all the hopes, and when, after years of imprisonment, I am behind bars again and I can no longer even hear the voices of my children, it is with a heart full of passion, hope and vitality, full of confidence in the achievement of freedom and justice in my country that I will spend time in prison.

What we want is victory, our victory, to defeat authoritarianism forever in the history of our country, and to achieve democracy and human rights, as well as a strong and powerful civil society.

We need strength to be victorious, strength that can only grow in solidarity and support from all over world. What I am asking for is concrete support, action to free political prisoners and civil society activists, and international opposition to the death penalty for protesters.

Protest movements are capable of giving power to civil society and the public arena, through which democracy is achieved. What is my message? Listen to the will of the Iranian people seeking a transition away from the authoritarian system, and the restoration of democracy and human rights. I thank everyone in Iran who is doing everything they can to inform people about what is happening here. Today, many of them are in prison or are being subjected to harassment.

Let’s hope for victory!

Narges Mohammadi, in Evin prison"