Nobel Laureate's Campaign Targets Iran's Sexual Assault on Dissidents

Imprisoned human rights activist and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Narges Mohammadi has launched a campaign to raise awareness and end state-led sexual harassment of protesters.

Mohammadi is urging people to join the inaugural campaign, "One Voice Against Sexual Assault and Harassment," by sharing their personal stories to create awareness among others.

“Some political regimes use rape and sexual assault of any kind as a weapon against anyone who is deemed to be different from them,” the statement of the campaign published on Mohammadi’s Instagram account read. “The contemporary history of Iran testifies to such a horrific abuse.”

“In the 1980s and during the Kahrizak disaster, even some officials of the Islamic Republic of Iran admitted to sexually abusing prisoners and detainees,” the statement added.

Kahrizak Prison, located in southern Tehran, gained notoriety for the alleged torture and rape of detainees following the June 2009 post-election protests. Among the victims was the son of Abdolhossein Rouhalamini, a longtime member of Iran's Basij paramilitary force and a Member of Parliament, who died in the prison due to mistreatment and neglect.

At the time, Amnesty International called for the full disclosure of the investigation into the abuses committed at Kahrizak.

Iranian authorities executed and tortured thousands of prisoners during the 1980s purge of prisoners. While the exact number of those executed is unknown, Amnesty International estimates that between July and September 1988, authorities "forcibly disappeared" and "extrajudicially executed" around 5,000 people.

Mohammadi’s social media post said that while “the leaders and perpetrators of such human tragedies are tried in front of the Iranian people, the narrators and whistleblowers of sexual harassment have always been tried and punished.”

Mohammadi has been convicted by the Islamic Republic’s non-independent courts three times following statements on the state’s abuse of dissidents. She faces a fourth trial on June 8.

In a letter published on Monday, 36 women political prisoners demanded Mohammadi’s trial be held publicly with witnesses and survivors of sexual harassment and assault, as well as independent media coverage.

The outspoken activist, currently serving a 6.5-year sentence for her human rights work, has been imprisoned multiple times.

She was most recently arrested in 2022 amid nationwide protests following the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Jina Amini in custody of the so-called morality police, for allegedly defying the state’s hijab rule. A UN Fact-Finding Mission has since said that the Iranian state is responsible for the physical violence that led to Amini’s death.