INTERNACIONAL
Could Narges Mohammadi unite Iran’s opposition? Husband says imprisoned Nobel laureate still fighting
Where’s the Opposition in Iran to Oust Regime?
David Asman and Jonathan Schanzer analyze the ongoing US military campaign in Iran, Operation Epic Fury, where CENTCOM reports over 10,000 targets struck. They discuss the decimation of Iranian regime leadership and the surprising reluctance of European allies to fully support President Trump’s aggressive strategy, citing past diplomatic disputes and potential economic pressure. The segment also explores the challenges of an internal opposition movement amid severe human rights abuses.
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EXCLUSIVE: As Iran’s opposition struggles to find a unifying figure amid war, repression and near-total internet blackouts, the husband of jailed Nobel Peace Prize laureate and Iranian human rights activist Narges Mohammadi says his wife remains physically battered but politically unbroken, even as she sits in prison after what he describes as a brutal arrest and beating.
«Narges is a human rights activist and an advocate for civil society,» her husband, Taghi Rahmani, told Fox News Digital in an exclusive interview from Europe in exile. «In mobilizing society, and in organizing and shaping civil institutions, she is an active and courageous woman.»
At a moment when Iran’s ruling establishment is reeling from the aftermath of U.S. and Israeli strikes, a fragile ceasefire, economic collapse and intensified crackdowns, Mohammadi’s name is emerging in a new light: Not only as a global symbol of resistance, but potentially as one of the few opposition figures whose legitimacy comes from suffering inside the system rather than exile, dynasty or factional politics.
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Mohammadi, awarded the 2023 Nobel Peace Prize while imprisoned, has spent decades as one of Iran’s most prominent women’s rights and human rights activists.
Trained as an engineer and later a journalist, she served as vice president of the Defenders of Human Rights Center, founded by fellow Nobel laureate Shirin Ebadi and became internationally known for campaigning against compulsory hijab laws, solitary confinement, prisoner abuse and the death penalty.
Narges Mohammadi, Iranian human rights activist and vice president of the Defenders of Human Rights Center, poses for a portrait in an undated photo. (Reuters)
Now, according to her husband, her condition has worsened dramatically.
«Narges is currently detained in Zanjan prison,» he said. «She was arrested in Mashhad during the month of Dey (around January) and was severely beaten. During her arrest, she received numerous blows, resulting in severe injuries to her chest, head, body and lungs.»
Rahmani said prison medical authorities determined she should be transferred for treatment under her own physician’s supervision in Iran, but that Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence is refusing the transfer and insisting she remain in Zanjan.
«Spiritually and mentally, Narges remains steadfast,» he said. «She believes the Islamic Republic is not desirable for the Iranian people, and advocates for a system based on freedom, human rights and open relations with the world. Physically, however, she has sustained severe trauma and urgently requires medical attention.»
Rahmani said the last time he spoke with his wife was the night before she left for Mashhad, Iran, where she was later arrested.
The Nobel banquet at the Grand Hotel in Oslo on Sunday, in connection with the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize 2023. Peace Prize winner Narges Mohammadi is imprisoned in Iran and is therefore represented by her children Ali and Kiana Rahmani and her spouse Taghi Rahmani, in Oslo, Norway Dec. 10, 2023. (NTB/Rodrigo Freitas via Reuters)
His account offers a rare inside look into the life of one of Iran’s most internationally recognized dissidents at a moment when questions over who could realistically lead opposition to the regime are intensifying.
«We hear a great deal about the Iranian opposition, yet media in the free world often lack a precise definition and a full understanding of what the Iranian opposition actually is,» Iranian anti-regime activist Maryam Shariatmadari told Fox News Digital.
Shariatmadari, one of the most recognizable faces of Iran’s «Girls of Revolution Street» movement, a wave of anti-regime protests that began in 2017 when Iranian women publicly removed their hijabs and stood in defiance of the country’s mandatory veiling laws, was sentenced to prison in 2018 after publicly removing her hijab in protest.
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Ali Rahmani, son of imprisoned Iranian human rights activist Narges Mohammadi, speaks after receiving the Nobel Peace Prize 2023 on her behalf at Oslo City Hall in Norway. (Fredrik Varfjell/NTB)
According to Shariatmadari, one camp consists of Iranians who view the 1979 Islamic Revolution itself as the foundational national disaster, believing Iran’s trajectory was derailed when the Shah fell. The second includes former revolutionaries, reformists, communist factions and groups such as the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK), many of whom emerged from or once supported the revolutionary system before later opposing it.
«The first group considers the 1979 revolution a disaster and seeks a return to Iran’s previous path,» she said, while the second includes «those who participated in the revolution but later became opposition figures after being excluded from power.»
That distinction, she argues, helps explain why Reza Pahlavi, the exiled son of Iran’s last shah, remains uniquely recognizable among many anti-regime Iranians despite spending decades outside the country.
Lisa Daftari, foreign policy analyst and editor-in-chief of The Foreign Desk news platform, told Fox News Digital, «Inside Iran, Pahlavi remains one of the only opposition figures with broad name recognition, and his message clearly resonated during the January protests, which is why his name still carries weight for many Iranians both inside the country and in the diaspora.»
Pahlavi himself sharpened that message Friday after a series of European appearances, accusing both European politicians and journalists of ignoring the scale of Iranian suffering.
«I spent the past several weeks traveling across Europe, speaking to members of parliaments, governments, and the press,» Pahlavi said in a video statement on his official X account. «My visit had one objective: to give a voice to the millions of Iranians held hostage by the Islamic Republic … But I can now say with confidence that silencing, that censorship is not just happening at the hands of the regime in Iran, but by the international and particularly the European media.»
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Iran’s Reza Pahlavi, exiled son of Shah Reza Pahlavi, is protected by security after he was attacked with a red fluid, following a news conference in Berlin, Germany, April 23, 2026. (Markus Schreiber/The Associated Press )
He went on to condemn what he described as European indifference to the mass killing of protesters and political executions, saying that across two press conferences in Stockholm and Berlin attended by more than 150 journalists, «not a single one» asked about the tens of thousands he says were killed during January’s crackdown or the political prisoners facing execution.
«Whether or not Europe stands with us … I will fight for my people and my country,» Pahlavi said. «We will fight until Iran is free.»
Still, even some supporters acknowledge why the administration has hesitated to openly embrace him as a transitional figure.
Daftari warned that overt Western backing could backfire by making him appear externally imposed rather than domestically legitimized.
«The Trump administration’s decision not to more openly embrace him as a transitional figure likely reflects several factors: a deep wariness of making regime change the explicit end goal or appearing to engineer it after Iraq and Afghanistan, concern that overt U.S. backing could put an even bigger target on his back and a strategy that is currently focused less on anointing a successor and more on degrading the regime’s capacity to threaten its own people, the region and the United States,» she said.
If Pahlavi represents dynastic memory and explicit regime-change politics, Mohammadi represents something profoundly different.
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Reza Pahlavi, son of Iran’s former Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, speaks during a press conference in Paris June 23, 2025. (Thomas Padilla/AP)
Mohammadi’s place within that landscape is distinct due to her unique kind of legitimacy at a time when many Iranians are searching not only for opposition to the regime, but for a figure who embodies endurance under it.
For now, however, Rahmani warns that Iran’s domestic conditions may make any mass uprising extraordinarily difficult.
«As you know, war serves as an excuse to suppress domestic forces within a country,» he said. «This war has now increased the intensity of the regime’s actions against the opposition.»
He argued that despite internal divisions, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has effectively consolidated power, militarized the streets and severely weakened civil society.
«The Islamic Republic has practically taken control of the streets during wartime and has severely weakened Iran’s civil society, which is the guarantor of democracy. In our opinion, this war, under these conditions, is not to the benefit of Iran, nor to the benefit of the Iranian people.»
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A picture of Nobel Peace Prize winner Narges Mohammadi on the wall of the Grand Hotel in central Oslo before the Nobel banquet, in connection with the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize 2023, in Oslo, Norway, Dec. 10, 2023. (NTB/Javad Parsa via Reuters)
That may be the defining challenge for Iran’s opposition today: not simply finding a leader, but surviving long enough under extraordinary repression for one to emerge.
Whether Mohammadi can become that figure remains uncertain. But from prison, her husband says, she has not stopped believing Iran’s future can be different.
The Iranian mission to the United Nations did not respond to a request for comment in time for publication.
war with iran, ali khamenei, persecutions, human rights, iran
INTERNACIONAL
DHS taunts media for reporting about ‘Green Bay man’ illegal immigrant charged in vicious machete attack
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FIRST ON FOX: The Department of Homeland Security called out the legacy media for characterizing the perpetrator of a recent Wisconsin machete attack as a «Green Bay man» when he is actually an illegal alien from Nicaragua.
Fox News Digital has learned that David Joel Herrera-Garcia, 24, who is charged with two counts of attempted murder, aggravated assault and armed burglary, is an illegal immigrant who was marked as a «non-enforcement priority» by the Biden administration, according to DHS.
Herrera-Garcia’s charges stem from an alleged break-in and machete attack at the home of his ex-girlfriend. Citing local reports, DHS said the Green Bay police responding to an emergency call discovered bloodied female and male victims in the early morning of April 20. The agency said that police on the scene found blood «all over the concrete» leading up to the house. The woman, Herrera-Garcia’s 23-year-old ex-girlfriend, identified him as the attacker, and he was arrested later that morning.
DHS has lodged an immigration detainer for Herrera-Garcia for the Brown County Jail to turn him over to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for possible deportation. The agency commented that «despite the legacy media calling Herrera-Garcia a ‘Green Bay man,’ he is in fact an illegal alien from Nicaragua.»
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David Joel Herrera-Garcia, an illegal alien from Nicaragua, is charged with with two counts of attempted murder, aggravated assault and armed burglary. (iStock via Getty; DHS)
«Yet again, legacy media has gone to bat for a vicious criminal illegal alien allowed by the Biden administration to roam our streets and prey upon innocent people,» remarked Acting Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis in a statement shared with Fox News Digital.
The agency said that Herrera-Garcia allegedly used a key to enter his ex-girlfriend’s home before proceeding to beat her and repeatedly stab her and a man with a machete.
Officers responding to the emergency call applied tourniquets to the victims, who were transported to a hospital. The female victim suffered a head injury and lacerations on her hand and neck. The male victim, whose age was not given, sustained wounds on his shoulder, forearm and shin.
According to DHS, Herrera-Garcia entered the country illegally in Texas as a minor with his father in 2019. He was given a final order of removal in 2022 after he failed to appear at his immigration hearings. However, the agency said that in the final days of the Biden administration, ICE used its prosecutorial discretion to label Herrera-Garcia as a «non-enforcement priority.» The agency said that ICE under former President Joe Biden chose not to take him into custody following an arrest by local law enforcement on charges of driving without a license.
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Former President Joe Biden delivers remarks during the Edward Kennedy Institute’s 10th anniversary celebration in Boston, Massachusetts, on Oct. 26, 2025. (Scott Eisen/Getty Images)
«The Biden administration marked this criminal illegal alien as a non-enforcement priority,» said Bis.
«This is not a ‘Green Bay man.’ This is a criminal illegal alien from Nicaragua who barbarically attacked two people with a machete,» she added. «Under President Trump’s leadership, ICE lodged an arrest detainer with our local authorities to ensure this monster is never released back into our communities.»
This comes amid heightened scrutiny on jurisdictions across the country with sanctuary policies limiting cooperation with ICE.
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Bis has previously slammed sanctuary politicians, saying that «at every step on the way to make America safe again,» they «have tried to slow ICE down and chosen to release criminals from their jails into our communities to perpetrate more crimes and create more victims.»
Fox News Digital reached out to the Brown County Sheriff’s Office and to spokespeople for Biden for comment.
migrant crime, immigration, illegal immigrants, sanctuary cities, joe biden, wisconsin, homeland security
Con los planes para las conversaciones de paz entre Estados Unidos e Irán descarrilados, al menos por ahora, Teherán y Washington se hunden en un incómodo limbo en el que ni hay paz ni hay guerra, cada uno con la esperanza de sobrevivir al otro en un enfrentamiento con drásticos riesgos para la economía mundial.
Según los analistas, los funcionarios iraníes parecen confiar en que podrán resistir las dificultades económicas derivadas de la guerra durante más tiempo que el presidente Donald Trump. Sin embargo, les sigue preocupando que, sin el impulso de las negociaciones, seguirán atrapados bajo la persistente amenaza de ataques estadounidenses o israelíes.
“Lo que está ocurriendo es algo parecido a lo que tuvimos al final de la guerra de los 12 días, que es poner fin a la guerra, pero sin ninguna permanencia”, dijo Sasan Karimi, vicepresidente del gobierno anterior de Irán y politólogo de la Universidad de Teherán, sobre la guerra entre Israel e Irán del pasado junio.
Durante el fin de semana, un artículo publicado por un destacado periódico conservador, Khorasan, y redistribuido por varios otros medios iraníes describió el momento actual como “un limbo estratégico” con riesgos considerables.
“Ambas partes se han alejado de los costos de una guerra a gran escala, pero no han ido más allá de la lógica de la fuerza y la presión”, decía. Esto “puede ser más peligroso que la propia guerra a corto plazo”.
Los titubeantes esfuerzos por reanudar las conversaciones de alto al fuego mediadas por Pakistán reflejan la dinámica existente desde que el bombardeo estadounidense-israelí de Irán terminó en un alto al fuego a principios de este mes. Ambas partes argumentaron haber salido victoriosas. Y Trump también parece creer que Estados Unidos puede resistir más que Irán las consecuencias económicas de la guerra y de los bloqueos paralelos del estrecho de Ormuz.
El resultado es que ninguna de las partes está dispuesta a ceder terreno que podría permitir avanzar en las conversaciones.
El sábado, Trump canceló el viaje de su enviado especial, Steve Witkoff, y de su yerno, Jared Kushner, a la capital paquistaní, Islamabad, para una segunda ronda de conversaciones sobre la tregua. Dijo que los iraníes harían perder el tiempo a los negociadores.
Los altos funcionarios iraníes mantienen que no se reunirán para negociar directamente hasta que Trump levante el bloqueo naval estadounidense que impuso a los puertos iraníes tras acordar el alto al fuego.
Sin embargo, el principal diplomático iraní, el ministro de Asuntos Exteriores Abbas Araghchi, se dirigió el sábado a reuniones en Omán tras su visita a Pakistán un día antes, aunque regresó a Pakistán el domingo. Está previsto que vuele a Rusia a finales de esta semana, según los medios de comunicación estatales iraníes, tras celebrar una segunda reunión con sus homólogos en Pakistán.
Además de Islamabad, que acogería una futura ronda de conversaciones, los iraníes consideran que la coordinación con Omán, el otro gobierno del golfo Pérsico cuyo país se encuentra junto al estratégico estrecho de Ormuz, es fundamental para llegar a un acuerdo.
Karimi, exfuncionario iraní, instó a los actuales dirigentes de Irán a que aprovecharan el momento para establecer un marco completo para un acuerdo con Estados Unidos, desde las concesiones iraníes hasta sus últimas exigencias, y una visión de un pacto de paz regional.
Pero en Irán, “el statu quo ahora es la forma más conservadora de comportarse políticamente”, advirtió, “porque cualquier cambio plantea la posibilidad de ser culpado en el futuro” si el plan fracasa.
Leé también: El Gobierno condenó a Irán por cerrar el estrecho de Ormuz: “Es una conducta ilegal”
El presidente Donald Trump llegando a la sala de prensa de la Casa Blanca el 25 de abril del 2026 después del ataque en el hotel Washington Hilton. (AP foto/Tom Brenner)
Irán también sigue creyendo que, en términos económicos, “puede soportar más que Trump, al menos en un plazo de varias semanas, en las que, en realidad, las perturbaciones en el estrecho son más costosas para Trump que para los iraníes”, dijo Esfandyar Batmanghelidj, director ejecutivo de la Fundación Bourse & Bazaar, organización de investigación con sede en Londres.
Pero la economía iraní ya se enfrenta a una grave crisis. Los informes sobre despidos se extienden por todo el país, el cual se enfrenta a la escasez en la producción de productos petroquímicos y medicinas como consecuencia de la guerra.
El periódico económico más importante de Irán, Donya-e-Eghtesad, ha pronosticado que la inflación anual podría aumentar hasta el 49 por ciento “en el caso más optimista” de que se alcance un acuerdo. Un estado de “ni guerra ni paz”, advertía, podría elevar la inflación más cerca del 70 por ciento en los próximos meses, mientras que volver a la guerra podría causar una hiperinflación de más del 120 por ciento.
Sin embargo, algunos economistas estiman que los gobernantes autoritarios de Irán pueden sobrevivir a la actual crisis económica entre tres y seis meses.
Por el contrario, dijo Batmanghelidj, las interrupciones de la producción de petróleo y de exportaciones como los fertilizantes podrían empezar a causar sacudidas económicas más profundas en la economía mundial en cuestión de semanas, lo que podría persuadir a Trump de avanzar en las conversaciones.
Sin embargo, aunque Irán pueda superar económicamente el estancamiento actual, dijo, su dilema estratégico persiste.
“El modo de ni acuerdo ni guerra, desde el punto de vista iraní, los deja vulnerables”, afirmó.
*Sanam Mahoozi colaboró con reportería.
The New York Times, Irán, Estados Unidos
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