Iranian journalist Narges Mohammadi named an honorary citizen of the City of Paris

Narges Mohammadi is an Iranian journalist and human rights activist. Aged 54, she has been repeatedly detained in Iran for more than twenty-five years. As vice president of the Center for Human Rights Defenders, a human rights organization founded in 2001 in Tehran by Shirin Ebadi (2003 Nobel Peace Prize laureate), she has been arrested fourteen times and sentenced to a cumulative total of more than forty years in prison. She has been charged, among other things, with “propaganda against the state” and “collusion against state security.”

On May 20, 2026, the Paris City Council awarded him honorary citizenship of the City of Paris. This is a testament to Paris’s commitment to human rights diplomacy and a gesture of solidarity with the Iranian people in their struggle against tyranny.

Narges Mohammadi is one of the leading figures in the resistance against repression in Iran. She distinguished herself in her fight against the oppression of women in Iran and for the promotion of human rights and freedom for all while she was imprisoned in Evin (Iran).

She is particularly known for her stances against the death penalty, in favor of criminalizing gender apartheid, and against the mandatory wearing of the hijab, as well as against violence against political prisoners and the suppression of protest movements, including the“Women, Life, Freedom”movement, following the death of the young Mahsa Jîna Amini in 2022.

Arrested again on December 12, 2025, in Mashhad (Iran), she was sentenced in February 2026 to an additional seven years in prison.

Her health has deteriorated: she suffered a second heart attack on May¹. Following an international campaign, including efforts by several countries (France, Canada, Spain), the European Union, and the United Nations, the Iranian regime agreed to transfer her to a hospital.

Narges Mohammadi remains sentenced to 18 years in prison, which she must serve. Her husband, Taghi Rahmani, and their two children, Ali and Kiana, found refuge in France in 2012 and live in Paris. On November 12, 2024, the^7th Committee of the Paris Council heard testimony from Taghi Rahmani and Narges Mohammadi’s lawyer.