Jailed Iranian Nobel Peace Prize winner Narges Mohammadi says she is facing a new trial after she accused the security forces of sexually assaulting women.

In a message from Evin prison where she is being held, Ms Mohammadi said the trial relates to an audio post, in which she condemned a "full-scale war against women" by the Iranian regime.

Ms Mohammadi has already served over 12 years in prison due to multiple convictions.

Her lawyer, Mostafa Nili, said the court would convene on Sunday to address the new charges of "spreading propaganda against the Islamic Republic".

There has been no comment on the case from Iranian officials.

In her message, posted on the Narges Foundation website, Ms Mohammadi said it was the fourth time in as many years she had been "dragged to the unjust and farcical courts’ table" due to her "protest and disclosure of the religious regime’s men’s sexual assault against women".

The 52-year old Nobel laureate continued that this time she was being tried for speaking against "the bruising of the body and narrating the assault on [journalist and student] Dina Ghalaibaf", in an audio message.

Ms Ghalibaf was reportedly detained after she accused the security forces of handcuffing and sexually assaulting her during a previous arrest at a metro station.

She was later released.

Ms Mohammadi is calling for a public trial with the presence of independent journalists, human rights activists, women’s rights activists, and her lawyers.

She continued: "Witnesses, along with their lawyers, should be able to attend with guarantees of physical, mental, and legal security, and openly recount their assaults.”

Ms Mohammadi has tirelessly campaigned for women's rights in Iran. She has been in and out of jail for two decades because of her activism.

Her family has said that, as well as 12 years and three months of imprisonment, her sentences also include 154 lashes, two years of exile and various social and political restrictions.

She has not seen her Paris-based husband and children for several years.

Despite the numerous threats and arrests she has kept up her work to campaign against the mandatory headscarf.

She won the 2023 Nobel Peace Prize for her work fighting against the oppression of women in Iran.

Her teenage children accepted the prize, at Oslo's city hall in December, and read her speech which had been smuggled out of prison.

"I write this message from behind the high, cold walls of a prison. The Iranian people, with perseverance, will overcome repression and authoritarianism," Ms Mohammadi said.

She added that young Iranians had "transformed the streets and public spaces into a place of widespread civil resistance", alluding to the protests that began in 2022 following the death of Mahsa Amini in police custody for allegedly wearing her hijab "improperly".

The authorities in the Islamic Republic in recent weeks intensified a crackdown to enforce a strict Islamic dress code on women and arrest those who disobeyed, making use of video surveillance.

Source:
courtesy of BBC NEWS

by Lipika Pelham

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