Iran’s prison authorities are blocking her transfer to hospital 2023 Nobel Peace Prize laureate Nargis Mohammadi where needs medical attention, because she refuses to cover her head, her family complains.

On Sunday, “the director of the prison announced that, in accordance with orders from above, it is forbidden to send her to a cardiac hospital without a headscarf, and her transfer was canceled for the second time,” according to the text posted by her family on Instagram.

On Monday, a medical team arrived at the women’s wing of Evin prison in Tehran to examine Nargis Mohammadi and performed an ultrasound of her heart after “prison authorities refused to transfer Nargis to the infirmary” without a headscarf, her family alleged, according to which, the cardiac and pulmonary problems he faces need urgent medical care. “She is ready to risk her life by refusing to forcibly wear the hijab, even to receive medical attention.”

The committee awarded the 51-year-old journalist and activist with the Nobel Peace Prize for “her struggle against the oppression of women in Iran and for the promotion of human rights and freedom for all.”

Nargis Mohammadi has been arrested 13 times and sentenced 5 times for a total of 31 years in prison and 154 lashes. He was re-imprisoned in 2021 and is one of the key figures of the “Woman, Life, Freedom” uprising.

Iranian women tossed their headscarves, cut their hair and demonstrated in the streets in this uprising sparked by the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini after she was arrested in Tehran by morality police for violating the dress code imposed on Iranian women.

In a message from prison to express her gratitude for the Nobel Peace Prize and read by her daughter, Nargis Mohammadi called the compulsory hijab “a key source of control and oppression in society aimed at maintaining and perpetuating an authoritarian religious government”.