Could Narges Mohammadi unite Iran’s opposition?Husband says imprisoned Nobel laureate still fighting

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. 

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“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 whyReza Pahlavi, the exiled sonof Iran’s last shah, remains uniquely recognizable among many anti-regime Iranians despite spending decades outside the country.

�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 whyhis name still carries weightfor 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 videostatement 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 thetens of thousands he sayswere killed during January’s crackdown or the political prisoners facing execution.

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“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 afterIraqand 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 andexplicit 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 anymass 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, theIslamic Revolutionary Guard Corpshas 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)

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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.

Follow her on X @efratlachter.Stories can be sent toefrat.com.