Iran Frees Journalists Whose Reports Set Off Nationwide Revolt
New York TimesJan 15
Iran: Nobel Laureate Mohammadi Given More Jail Time
The Facts
2023 Nobel Peace Prize winner Narges Mohammadi has been sentenced to an additional 15-month jail term, with the Revolutionary Court ordering her to spend two years in exile outside Tehran. After being freed she will not be allowed to travel abroad, own a cell phone, or join any political or social groups for two years.
Her family claimed in an Instagram post on Monday that this latest verdict — on charges of spreading propaganda against the Islamic Republic of Iran — was handed down on Dec. 19 in a court session that Mohammadi refused to attend.
The Spin
Anti-Iran narrative
Tehran has long sought to silence Narges Mohammadi through intimidation and punishment, but to no avail. She has never refrained from speaking out against the authoritarian clerical regime, even while imprisoned and suffering health problems. Given that Iran's judicial system is anything but independent, it's no surprise that the Nobel Winner has been slapped with a sentence that is, effectively, a political statement.
Pro-Iran narrative
Once a mostly unknown anti-Iranian troublemaker mercenary, Narges Mohammadi came into the international spotlight for her subversive activities in the 2022 West-backed riots that sought to create divisions within Iran and promote separatist terrorism in Baluchistan and Kurdistan. That a biased and political prize was awarded to her doesn't make Mohammadi exempt from abiding by the rule of law.
Nerd narrative
There's a 50% chance that Iran will cease to be an Islamic Republic by February 2041, according to the Metaculus prediction community.