A picture of Nobel Peace Prize winner Narges Mohammadi on the wall of the Grand Hotel in central Oslo before the Nobel banquet, in connection with the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize 2023, in Oslo, Norway, Dec. 10, 2023. Photo: NTB/Javad Parsa via REUTERS

The husband of Iran’s imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize winner Narges Mohammadi described the family’s fears on Tuesday after her hospitalization for severe medical problems and the authorities’ refusal to transfer her to Tehran.

Mohammadi, 54, won the prize in 2023 while in prison for a campaign to advance women’s rights and abolish the death penalty, and she suffered a heart attack last week.

“We are very afraid because the illnesses that Narges has, such as high blood pressure or a pulmonary embolism, could lead to her death,” said her husband, Taghi Rahmani, who lives in Paris.

“We are maintaining contact through family, through acquaintances we have, and through her lawyer, and it is very difficult right now. The internet is down, and we are receiving information through phone calls and various other means,” he said in an interview with Reuters.

Mohammadi’s family want her to be transferred from Zanjan, where she was serving her sentence and where she is now in hospital, to the capital where she could receive better medical care.

The couple have 19-year-old twin children.

Rahmani spoke to Mohammadi on Tuesday morning, he said, adding that Iranian authorities had agreed to keep her in hospital for a week.

“Even if her condition improves a little, if she is sent back to prison her condition will worsen again and we are afraid of that,” he added.

Rahmani said he believed the Iran war, which began with a US-Israeli attack on the Islamic Republic on February 28, had made things worse for Mohammadi, by giving the military greater control.

Security authorities were reluctant for her to return to the main Evin prison in Tehran in case she was able to engage in activism there, he said.

“Narges is an activist who, wherever she goes, becomes active and for the repressive system this activity is considered a threat,” he said.

Iran shut down most of the internet in the country in January as authorities suppressed mass protests triggered by economic unease. Rights groups have reported ongoing executions of people involved in the unrest.

“Executions are happening under the shadow of war-related news; this war is not bringing democracy to Iran. It is worsening the situation in Iran,” he said.