Iranian Nobel laureate calls for global will to confront Tehran rights abuses

Nobel Peace Prize laureate Narges Mohammadi criticized the Iranian government's rights records and called for a global efforts to undermine what she called Tehran's gender apartheid.

In a virtual address to Italy’s parliament on Wednesday, Mohammadi said the current leadership in Iran is “fundamentally an unaccountable regime, incapable of upholding democracy, freedom, and equality.”

"This struggle is difficult, exhausting, and costly for women and for Iranian society. We need global will and determination to put an end to gender apartheid," she added.

Mohammadi is the most outspoken and prominent dissident inside the country and has spent over a decade in Iranian prisons. Currently on medical leave from Tehran's Evin Prison, she has resumed her public criticism of Iran's theocratic rulers.

"The Iranian people seek a transition from tyranny to democracy," she said, calling for an end to the systemic violence and discrimination that she said has marked the Islamic Republic's rule for over four decades.

She also addressed the case of three Iranian activists—Varisheh Moradi, Pakhshan Azizi, and Sharifeh Mohammadi—currently facing execution, urging global action to prevent their deaths.

Mohammadi rejected remarks by the Iranian government that sexual violence against women does not exist.

“I have witnessed numerous instances of such violence and have many accounts from women that I can testify about,” she added.

Mohammadi has helped spearhead a weekly protest campaign against Iran's high rate of executions which often targets political prisoners, dubbed No to Execution Tuesdays.