Iranian Nobel Laureate says war dealt big blow to fight for democracy

“The situation for Iranian people is more dangerous now than before the war," Narges Mohammadi, who in 2023 received the Nobel Peace Prize for her three-decade fight for democracy, told The Wall Street Journal. The interview was conducted in writing because of the poor internet connection in the village outside Tehran where she sheltered from the bombings.

When the Islamic Republic has been under pressure in the past, it has cemented its authority by rallying supporters around the flag and stifling dissent. The government has marginalized reformist politicians, suppressed protest movements and imprisoned, executed and exiled activists.

“I am deeply concerned about the situation of civil society activists, political activists, and especially youths who are active in social activities," Mohammadi said. “Unfortunately, I think the repression will intensify further in the coming days."

Scores of Iranians have been arrested on allegations of espionage for Israel and complicity in the attacks since last week’s cease-fire. Six were executed after hasty trials. Allegations of espionage have been leveraged in the past at opposition activists.

Few Iranians have been as vocal in their fight against Iran’s theocratic rule as Mohammadi, 53 years old, who has endured torture and prison sentences. She is on temporary release from a 10-year sentence after a tumor removal and bone-graft surgery in prison, where she also suffered several heart attacks.

Despite decades of oppression, Iran’s civil society remains vibrant and active openly and underground. Protest movements spring up every few years, most recently after the death in police custody of a young woman in 2022, and have been crushed by authorities.

Many Iranians challenge Iran’s Islamist leaders and the strict rules governing behavior and dress through informal civil disobedience in daily life.

The weakened state of Iran’s military is unlikely for now to invite an open uprising, according to political analysts. While the conflict with Israel has diminished Iran’s ability to wage war on its foreign enemies, it is still fully capable of using force against its own citizens.

Despite her long fight against the Islamic Republic, Mohammadi said she didn’t want foreign powers to topple it and that any change in Iran should be pushed by Iranians. Regime change pushed by a foreign power would be illegitimate, she said.

Israel said the aim of its war against Iran wasn’t regime change. But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called on Iranians to unite “by standing up for your freedom from the evil and oppressive regime."

“In Iran, there is a misogynistic and religious government helmed by Ali Khamenei who has taken us to hell while promising paradise," Mohammadi said, referring to the country’s supreme leader. “Netanyahu is taking us to hell while promising freedom and democracy."

Netanyahu’s office didn’t respond to requests for comment.

Gauging the mood in Iran is difficult because of the lack of reliable polling and restrictions on freedom of speech, but Mohammadi is one of the most celebrated public figures among a population wary of foreign interventions. Many other Iranians voiced similar sentiments during the war.

Even hard-line opponents who spent years fighting the Islamic Republic were seen calling for “death to Israel," said Narges Bajoghli, associate professor at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.

“The folks who despise the Islamic Republic, we saw them willing to put their lives on the line to fight the regime. Now, the same organizers are uniting, not around the flag of the Islamic Republic, but the idea of the homeland," said Bajoghli, who wrote a book researched inside Iran about propaganda in the Islamic Republic.

In a country without an organized opposition, Mohammadi is an icon of civil disobedience. She has organized prison sit-ins in solidarity with street protests and published a book about torture in prisons. When she received the Nobel Peace Prize, the chair of the committee called her “the symbol of what it means to be a freedom fighter in Iran."

She has been arrested 13 times, tried nine times and sentenced to more than 36 years in prison, of which she has served roughly 10. She hasn’t seen her twin teenagers in person since 2015, when they moved to France to live in exile with her husband after she was arrested.

Five days after Israel began its strikes on Iran, Mohammadi fled the capital, driving through traffic-clogged streets to a village. The war in Tehran brought back memories of the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war.

“The sound of drones and air defenses reminded me of my childhood, when I was in a shelter with my family, listening to the sound of Iraqi planes breaking the sound barrier above us," she said.

Iranian authorities imposed a near-total communication blackout, making it hard for Iranians to gauge the toll of the war and whether to evacuate. The blackouts also prevented them from receiving nongovernmental information or from organizing, Mohammadi said.

Israel killed a number of senior military commanders and nuclear scientists, and struck Iran’s missile facilities and nuclear infrastructure. An Israeli strike hit Evin Prison, a notorious detention facility housing most of the country’s political prisoners, where Mohammadi has spent about a decade.

Mohammadi said that after the strike, some inmates were moved, and many relatives don’t know if their jailed family members have been killed or taken to undisclosed locations.

Israel’s campaign was the most significant blow to the Islamic Republic in four decades, but Mohammadi said that attacks on the state, which destroy infrastructure and the economy and weaken its people, will undermine any drive for democratic change.

“War does not have the capacity for the fundamental transformation that the Iranian people seek," she said.

Write to Sune Engel Rasmussen at sune.rasmussen@wsj.com