Islamic Republic will fall, Iran's Nobel Peace laureate says

The Islamic Republic cannot be reformed and cannot offer democracy or freedom, Iranian Nobel Peace Prize laureate Narges Mohammadi told the French weekly magazine Nouvel Obs.

"People in Iran, based on historical experiences and decades of efforts now demand a transition from tyranny to democracy, meaning a shift away from the Islamic Republic," she said.

Mohammadi, who won the Nobel Prize in 2023, is currently on temporary leave from prison.

In her interview featured on the cover of a Nouvel Obs special edition on Iran, she described the government in Tehran as unaccountable and inefficient, asserting that its downfall is inescapable and what Iranians want.

"The transition from the Islamic Republic is aimed at creating a democratic and secular structure where human rights and women's rights are guaranteed, and civil society is realized and strengthened," she said.

Mohammadi, 52, has spent much of the past 20 years in and out of prison. She has been arrested, tried, and sentenced to prison multiple times because of her human rights work.

Last December Mohammadi was released from Tehran's Evin prison to receive medical care where she was serving a 13-year sentence.

She was awarded the Nobel peace prize for her three-decade campaign for women's rights in Iran.