Reporter talks about unique interview with Iranian Nobel laureate Narges Mohammadi : NPR

AILSA CHANG, HOST:

The state of affairs for Iranian individuals is extra harmful now than earlier than the battle. That is a quote from Nobel Laureate Narges Mohammadi, writing to Wall Road Journal reporter Sune Engel Rasmussen. The battle that Mohammadi is referring to is the 12-day battle between Israel and Iran. Narges Mohammadi stated she was deeply involved for activists in Iran and about authorities repression within the coming days. And Sune Engel Rasmussen joins us now to speak about his interview. Welcome.

SUNE ENGEL RASMUSSEN: Thanks a lot. Thanks for having me.

CHANG: Nicely, thanks for being with us. Are you able to simply inform us extra about Narges Mohammadi? She was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2023, proper? Are you able to inform us extra about her activism?

RASMUSSEN: Yeah. Narges Mohammadi has been one of the crucial distinguished human rights defenders in Iran of the previous three many years. She has been form of a tireless defender not simply of ladies’s rights, however of human rights and democracy usually. She has been arrested numerous occasions. She’s been tried 9 occasions. She’s acquired over 36 years in whole in jail sentences and has served about 10 years to date. However she’s stayed within the nation. And that has endeared her to loads of Iranians, as properly, who can see the braveness from this particular person type of staying within the nation even whereas the regime has threatened her for many years.

CHANG: Yeah. Nicely, now she’s expressing concern that repression in Iran will intensify much more within the coming days. Why does she really feel that means?

RASMUSSEN: She’s nervous that the Iranian state will do what it is carried out up to now, which is reply to each strain from exterior enemies, but additionally strain from inside, with repression, mainly – with throwing activists in jail and stifling any indicators of dissent within the nation.

The response from the Iranian state following the battle has been to arrest lots of people on accusations of spying for Israel. Six individuals no less than have already been executed after swift trials. And the crimes that the state is accusing these individuals of getting dedicated is both spying for Israel or smuggling drones into the nation that have been used throughout the first wave of assaults. However we have seen up to now that allegations of espionage on behalf of international powers has additionally been used in opposition to political dissidents inside Iran.

CHANG: Nicely, I noticed that your interview was carried out in writing due to poor web connections. And throughout the battle, there was this near-total communication blackout that was imposed on individuals in Iran. What did Mohammadi should say about that blackout?

RASMUSSEN: Yeah, it really took a number of days simply to get this interview. There was particularly a interval of three or 4 days the place it was very troublesome to get in contact with anybody contained in the nation. That meant that it was troublesome for outsiders, for journalists like myself, to precisely report the toll of the battle in Iran, each the civilian toll but additionally the injury carried out to Iranian navy or nuclear amenities. However then it additionally meant for Narges Mohammadi and her fellow activists, or simply Iranians usually, that it was troublesome for them to speak internally. It was troublesome to guess whether or not try to be evacuating from the realm the place you lived in. And it was additionally almost unattainable for activists to prepare if that they had needed to mount any form of opposition or any form of activism in opposition to the state and even protests in opposition to the Israeli battle.

So I believe it is necessary additionally to know that loads of Iranians, like Narges Mohammadi – regardless that she’s spent many years combating the Islamic Republic of Iran, she would not need a international energy to topple the regime as a result of she thinks that any form of regime change in Iran that’s orchestrated by a international energy could be illegitimate. And in that sense, she says that Iranians have been type of caught between each combating their very own authorities however then additionally having a international energy combating a battle in opposition to themselves.

CHANG: Nicely, with respect to the combat for democratic change in Iran, how a lot does Mohammadi assume that this battle has impacted that progress?

RASMUSSEN: So she says it is impacted Iran’s combat for democracy in two methods. One impression that it is had is the one we simply mentioned, the place the Iranian state is more likely to intensify its repression of dissent contained in the nation. However she additionally says that the battle itself – just like the Israeli battle and, on the finish, additionally the American battle in opposition to Iran – broken the wrestle for democracy within the sense that it destroyed pillars of society that any potential future democracy would construct on. So the Israeli assaults – sure, they focused navy installations and nuclear amenities, however in addition they hit residential areas in Tehran. In addition they hit areas of the capital and different massive cities which might be necessary for the civilian economic system. And it weakened a inhabitants that might in any other case type of be the driving drive in any form of push for democracy.

CHANG: Sune Engel Rasmussen, Wall Road Journal reporter, telling us about his interview with Iranian Nobel Laureate Narges Mohammadi. Thanks very a lot.

RASMUSSEN: You are very welcome.

Copyright © 2025 NPR. All rights reserved. Go to our web site phrases of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for additional info.

Accuracy and availability of NPR transcripts could differ. Transcript textual content could also be revised to appropriate errors or match updates to audio. Audio on npr.org could also be edited after its unique broadcast or publication. The authoritative report of NPR’s programming is the audio report.