Nobel Laureate Narges Mohammadi Talks to Margaret Atwood About Reading The Handmaid’s Tale in an Iranian Prison

Narges Mohammadi picked up Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid ‘s Tale while in prison. The activist had been sentenced to 16 years for challenging Iran’s enforcement of what Mohammadi terms gender apartheid—a system of dress codes, sexual subjugation, and coercive control enforced, as in Atwood’s book, by men who have taken power as a theocracy.

Mohammadi was still in prison when she won the Nobel Prize for Peace in 2023. But in December, after she underwent surgery, Iranian authorities allowed her to return to home on a three-week medical leave. Mohammadi, 52, made the most of her freedom, finally speaking (and singing) to the Nobel committee, giving interviews, posting on social media from the fence at Zanjan Central Prison—and reaching out, through PEN America, to Atwood.

On Dec. 18, TIME and a translator hosted the Canadian author, 85, on a video call with Mohammadi. One woman wrote a book. The other has been living in it.