Iran's Nobel winner says protests led to 'profound changes'

Nationwide protests against Iran's religious authorities sparked by the death in 2022 of Mahsa Amini have led to "profound changes", Iranian Nobel Peace Prize winner Narges Mohammadi said Sunday.

A 22-year-old Iranian Kurd, Amini died in custody on September 16, 2022, days after the morality police arrested her in Tehran for an alleged breach of the Islamic republic's strict dress code for women.

Her death triggered months-long protests nationwide under the rallying cray "Woman, life freedom!", with hundreds of people, including dozens of security personnel, killed. Thousands of demonstrators were arrested.

"After these protests and the 'women, life and freedom movement', we are seeing very profound changes in society," Mohammadi said during a video interview with Spanish public television TVE from an undisclosed location in Iran.

Mohammadi, 52, had been in prison for over three years but was released in December for a limited period on medical leave. Her legal team have warned she could be re-arrested and sent back to jail at any time.

She won the 2023 Nobel Peace Prize in recognition of her two-decade fight for human rights in the Islamic republic and strongly backed the protests sparked by Amini's death.

"Life in prison is practically impossible. I spent part of my sentence in solitary confinement, in a very small space, with three walls and a door, with nothing else," said Mohammadi, who spoke in Farsi and was flanked by a picture of Amini.

Asked if she felt her activism had been worth it given the price she has paid, Mohammadi said if she went back in time she "would undoubtedly do the same thing, even if I had to pay a higher price."