NEW YORK — Narges Mohammadi has spent more than a decade in Iran’s prisons, Karin Deutsch Karlekar told a meeting at the Rizzoli Bookstore here April 22. Karlekar is the director of Writers at Risk at PEN America and co-chair of the Free Narges Coalition steering committee. The meeting of some 100 people called for freeing Mohammadi and thousands of other political prisoners in Iran, and publicized her book, White Torture: Interviews with Iranian Women Prisoners.
Mohammadi is well-known for speaking out against the death penalty in Iran, for freeing all political prisoners and for an end to discriminatory treatment against Kurdish prisoners. “Narges has also become an advocate for women in Iran’s prisons,” Karlekar said.
Mohammadi was the winner of the 2023 Nobel Peace Prize. She has been arrested 14 times since 1998, most recently in December 2025 after addressing the crowd at a memorial ceremony of hundreds (above) for human rights lawyer Khosrow Alikordi, who died under suspicious circumstances. During the arrest plainclothes agents beat Mohammadi on the head and neck with their batons. They also arrested 38 others. Her family reports she is being denied adequate medical treatment for a heart condition, putting her life in danger.
“White Torture” refers to the practice of submitting political prisoners to sensory deprivation, including solitary confinement, blindfolds, and denial of family contact. The publication of this book led to her 12th arrest in 2021.
Other panelists included Mona Armande, a lawyer from France; Bahar Ghandehari, from the New York-based Center for Human Rights in Iran; and Fatemeh Jamalpour, a journalist banned from working in Iran.