Narges Mohammadi's Questions on Gender Apartheid in Special Issue of Society Magazine

Reporters Without Borders, in collaboration with the French magazine Society, has published a special issue titled "Prison Articles" warning of "increasing threats to press freedom," part of which is dedicated to Narges Mohammadi, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate imprisoned in Evin Prison. This special issue was released on Thursday, September 13, focusing on eight journalists imprisoned in various countries around the world, some of whom have a history of arrest and conviction, while the current location and status of others remain unknown. In the section related to Narges Mohammadi, this journalist and political prisoner discusses the topic of "gender apartheid," and the designers of the "Prison Articles" project have shared her questions with seven influential women: Human rights activists have called for international investigations into the repression of women prisoners in Evin. The seven figures who answered Narges Mohammadi's questions include Shirin Ebadi, human rights activist and Nobel Peace Prize laureate; Agnes Callamard, Secretary-General of Amnesty International; British anthropologist Jane Goodall; Turkish sociologist and activist Pinar Selik; Congolese activist Tatiana Mukanyiri Bandali; French-Swedish physicist Anne Louise; and Ukrainian lawyer and activist Oleksandra Matviychuk. Reporters Without Borders has noted that Narges Mohammadi has repeatedly called for the "criminalization of gender apartheid" and condemned the "systematic and institutionalized discrimination and oppression" against women in Iran; she believes that the door closed to women's freedom and rights will never open to democracy, equality, and freedom. In June 2024, Narges Mohammadi was sentenced to an additional year in prison for "propaganda against the regime." Over the past three years, this human rights activist has been tried six times in revolutionary and criminal courts, receiving a total sentence of 13 years and three months in prison, 154 lashes, exile, and a two-year travel ban. Ms. Mohammadi has been tried and convicted four times for protesting, exposing, and narrating the sexual assault and harassment by government agents. Nevertheless, she continues her activities even behind bars. At the beginning of the "Prison Articles" project in Society magazine, it is noted that currently more than 580 journalists worldwide are imprisoned "solely for doing their job"; according to Reporters Without Borders, these journalists are "unjustly imprisoned for exposing corruption, protesting against injustice, and demanding accountability from governments." The "Prison Articles" project in Society magazine aims to "amplify the voices" of eight journalists in various ways. An article about Jimmy Lai, the founder of several media outlets including Apple Daily, who is imprisoned in Hong Kong, is another part of the issue published in the French magazine Society. An interview with the most famous imprisoned journalist in Guatemala, José Rubén Zamora, a research report, and a conversation with the family of Dawit Isaak, an Eritrean-Swedish journalist who is serving a long sentence without trial in a remote location in Eritrea, are other sections of this issue.