Azerbaijani human rights defender imprisoned in Iran receives PEN America's Freedom to Write Award

The writer, journalist and human rights activist Narges Mohammadi from the city of Zanjan in South Azerbaijan was honored at PEN America Literary Gala, Report informs.

Mohammadi, currently jailed for allegedly “spreading propaganda,” received the 2023 PEN/Barbey Freedom to Write Award.

Mohammadi’s husband, the journalist and activist Taghi Rahmani, accepted the prize on her behalf.

For two decades, Mohammadi has fiercely defended women, political prisoners, and ethnic minorities working with Nobel Peace laureate Shirin Ebadi’s Defenders of Human Rights Center, where she is vice president. She was first targeted by Iranian authorities as a college student when she wrote about women’s rights for her student newspaper and was arrested at a political meeting.

Earlier this month, Mohammadi received the United Nations' World Press Freedom Prize.