Imprisoned Iranian human rights activist and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Narges Mohammadi has refused to attend a court hearing in a trial against her, calling the revolutionary tribunal "a slaughterhouse."
"The Revolutionary Court is a slaughterhouse for the youth of this land, and I will not set foot in this slaughterhouse. I do not acknowledge the authority or credibility of judges affiliated with security institutions and show trials," Mohammadi said in a statement on her Instagram account published by her family, who accepted the 2023 prize in Oslo on her behalf on December 10.
The hearing, the first since she was awarded the Nobel Prize, was reportedly set to address her recent activities in prison, and had been scheduled at Branch 26 of the Islamic Revolutionary Court in Tehran.
Mohammadi, who has been in and out of prison for the better part of the last 20 years, began serving her current 10-year sentence on various charges in November 2021.
Her family said this will be the third trial that the 51-year-old activist for women's rights has faced related to her activities in prison.
The accusations for which Mohammadi was summoned to court were not immediately known. Even from Tehran's notorious Evin Prison, she has continued her political activism against Iran's strict dress code for women and against its ruling theocracy.
She has refused to wear a mandatory hijab during her transfers from Evin Prison to hospital and back on at least three occasions.
Renowned globally as a staunch advocate for the "Women, Life, Freedom" movement, Mohammadi was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize on October 6.
For years, Mohammadi has voiced dissent against the hijab, or mandatory head scarf, rule imposed on Iranian women, as well as restrictions on women's freedoms and rights in the country by its Islamic regime.