Narges Mohammadi: Iran temporarily releases Nobel Peace Prize winner
Vocabulary: 299, Words: 613
1Iranian Nobel Peace Prize winner Narges Mohammadi has been released from jail for three weeks on medical grounds, according to her lawyer.
2Mostafa Nili said officials had suspended his client's jail sentence on doctor's advice after Ms Mohammadi underwent surgery to remove a tumour.
3Her family and supporters have called for her to be freed permanently, describing the temporary release as "too little, too late".
4The 52-year-old women's rights activist has been held in Tehran's notorious Evin prison since 2021.
5Following her temporary release, a video was posted on Ms Mohammadi's Instagram account showing her sitting up on a stretcher and being wheeled out of an ambulance.
6In the footage, she shouts "Woman, Life, Freedom" - the slogan of the 2022-2023 protest movement that rocked the Islamic authorities.
7Images on social media showed Ms Mohammadi's right leg heavily strapped. 8She also clutched a picture of Mahsa Amini, the 22-year-old Iranian woman whose custody death in September 2022 sparked the protests.
9Ms Mohammadi's husband Taghi Rahmani told reporters his wife "came out in a good state of mind, a combative state despite her very fragile state of health".
10Her 18-year-old son Ali Rahmani said they had a phone exchange that was brief but intense.
11"She was able to tell me that she loves me," he added.
12"The first thing she told me was that she'd left Evin prison without the compulsory veil."
13The head of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, Jorgen Watne Frydnes, called on Iranian authorities to "permanently end her imprisonment and ensure that she will get adequate medical treatment for her illnesses".
14A UN Human Rights Office spokesman in Geneva described the temporary release as "important".
15It reiterated its call "for the immediate and unconditional release of Ms Mohammadi" along with other Iranian men and women "detained or imprisoned for the legitimate exercise of their freedom of expression and other human rights".
16Mr Nili wrote on X that, based on the advice of an examining doctor, the public prosecutor had suspended her jail sentence for three weeks and she had been released from prison.
17In a statement, the Narges Mohammadi Foundation said she underwent surgery last month after doctors discovered a bone lesion in her right leg suspected of being cancerous.
18She was then transferred back to prison after just two days. 19The group said that was done "against her doctor’s advice and request from her legal team, even though she was unable to walk or even sit".
20Since then, Ms Mohammadi has seen a "rapid development of bedsores and intensified pain in her back and legs".
21The foundation called the 21-day suspension "inadequate" and said a minimum of three months is crucial for her recovery.
22Unlike a medical furlough, which would have allowed the recovery period to count towards her prison term, this suspension means she will be required to serve an additional 21 days after returning to prison, the foundation added.
23Ms Mohammadi won the 2023 Nobel Peace Prize for her campaigning against the oppression of women in Iran.
24Her teenage children accepted the prize in Oslo on her behalf and read a speech which had been smuggled out of prison.
25"I write this message from behind the high, cold walls of a prison. 26The Iranian people, with perseverance, will overcome repression and authoritarianism," Ms Mohammadi said.
27In 2016, she was sentenced to 16 years in prison, but was later released on bail. 28She then launched a campaign to stop solitary confinement and published two books and a documentary film.
29She was arrested again in 2021 and has been in prison since.
30Ms Mohammadi has been arrested a total of 13 times, tried five times, and sentenced to more than 32 years imprisonment and 154 lashes, according to her foundation.
from BBC