The Iranian rights activist, who has been in jail in Tehran since November 2021, was released for three weeks on medical grounds, her lawyer said in a social media post on Wednesday.

“Based on the advice of the examining doctor, the public prosecutor suspended the jail sentence against Narges Mohammadi for three weeks and she was released from prison,” Mostafa Nili said on X.

Mohammadi, 52, was awarded the 2023 Nobel Peace Prize for her decades of activism despite numerous arrests by Iranian authorities and spending years behind bars.

She underwent bone surgery last month, including a bone graft, for a non-malignant growth.

Her family and supporters described her temporary release as inadequate, urging her unconditional release.

“A 21-day suspension of Narges Mohammadi’s sentence is inadequate. We demand Narges Mohammadi’s immediate and unconditional release or at least an extension of her leave to three months,” they said in a statement, describing the measure as “too little, too late”.

“The denial of proper medical care and sufficient recovery time post-surgery has led to the rapid development of bedsores and intensified pain in her back and legs,” the statement added.

Several years behind bars

Mohammadi was jailed in 2021 over several past convictions relating to her advocacy against the obligatory hijab for women and capital punishment in Iran. 

In June, Mohammadi was sentenced to an additional year behind bars for “propaganda against the state”.

She refused to appear in court for the trial after her request for it to be held in public was rejected.

In a letter from prison in September, she condemned the “devastating oppression” of women in Iran.

The letter was published by her foundation to mark the second anniversary of the nationwide protests that followed the death in custody of Mahsa Amini, an Iranian Kurdish woman detained for an alleged breach of the dress code.

Mohammadi has not seen her Paris-based husband and twin children for several years and has spent much of the last decade in and out of prison.

Behind bars and deprived of the right to speak to her family in France, she has refused to give up campaigning, staging protests in the yard of Evin prison and going on hunger strikes.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP)