As PEN International marks Imprisoned Writer Day on November 15, a memoir by 2023 Nobel Peace Prize laureate Narges Mohammadi stands as a powerful act of resistance against authoritarian regimes.
"A Woman Never Stops Fighting — My Struggle for Freedom, Democracy and Human Rights in Iran," was recently published in German and is set to be released in English in September 2027.
The autobiography "portrays how Narges actually became the woman she is today — and it also reveals the price she had to pay to become that woman," Mariam Claren, spokesperson for the Narges Mohammadi Foundation Germany told DW.
Mohammadi wrote the autobiography in prison: "She was constantly writing," says Claren, whose own mother, activist Nahid Taghavi, shared a cell with Mohammadi for two and a half years, in Iran's notorious Evin prison. "Then, in 2020, Narges was forcibly moved to another prison. All her documents were gone. And she had to start all over."
But she managed to rewrite it all, and her texts were smuggled out of prison in fragments by fellow prisoners and visitors who risked their own safety.
In her memoir, Mohammadi recounts pivotal moments in her life, including her childhood and youth, how she started taking action against gender discrimination, political repression, the death penalty and human rights abuses, and the personal and emotional…
