2023-10-06 21:13:00
The 2023 Nobel Peace Prize went to Narges Mohammadi, a symbol of the women’s struggle in Iran
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The imprisoned Iranian activist Narges Mohammadi was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize this Friday, as decided by the Norwegian Committee, which thus highlighted the oppression of women, as well as the human rights situation in general in the Islamic country, shaken by a series of protests following that last year a young woman died in police custody for not wearing the veil correctly.
“The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided to award the 2023 Nobel Peace Prize to Narges Mohammadi for his fight once morest oppression of women in Iran and their fight to promote human rights and freedom for all,” the official statement indicated.
This year’s award, according to the Committee, “also recognizes the hundreds of thousands of people who last year demonstrated once morest the Iranian theocratic regime’s policies of discrimination and oppression once morest women.”
“It’s not just regarding my sister, it’s regarding how important it is for the world to see what is really happening in Iran.”
2023 peace laureate Narges Mohammadi’s brother, Hamidreza Mohammadi, sat down with us to talk regarding this year’s Nobel Peace Prize.
Watch the candid… pic.twitter.com/1wLppi0pok
— The Nobel Prize (@NobelPrize) October 6, 2023
The news was received coldly by Iran, which denounced a “biased and political” decision and criticized in a statement that Mohammadi “was found guilty of repeated violations of the law and that she committed criminal acts.”
The award is given a few days following the first anniversary of the death of the young Kurdish woman Mahsa Aminiwho died at the age of 22 following being arrested for allegedly violating the strict dress code for women, an episode that unleashed a broad protest movement in the Islamic Republic that left several hundred dead, including executed by judicial decision and for the repression of street demonstrations.
On September 16, the anniversary day, Narges and three other prisoners burned their veils in the prison yardaccording to his Instagram account, managed by his family.
A life in prison to defend human rights in Iran
Born in 1972, journalist and mother of teenage twins, Mohammadi was arrested 13 times and sentenced to a total of 31 years in prison and 154 lashes.reported the Sputnik news agency.
The first time she was sent to prison was 22 years ago and she is currently housed in Evin Prison, in Tehran, following being sentenced in January 2022 to eight years and 70 lashes.
After knowing his distinction, sHis son Ali, 17, declared at a press conference that he was “very, very proud” of his mother.
The prize is “a reward for the Iranian people,” he said in Paris, where he lives in exile with his twin sister and father, Taghi Rahmani.
Mohammadi’s family also issued a statement in which they declared that the distinction represented “a historic and important moment for the fight for freedom in Iran.”
Narges Mohammadi. / Photo: AFP.
“Unfortunately, Narges cannot be with us to share this extraordinary moment,” continued the text written by her husband, Taghi Rahmani, on behalf of the family.
“As Narges always says: victory is not easy, but it is certain,” he concluded.
Requests for freedom
Knowing the distinction, The UN demanded his immediate release “and that of all human rights defenders imprisoned in Iran.”
“The case of Narges Mohammadi is emblematic of the enormous risks that women take to defend the rights of all Iranians. We call for her release and that of all human rights defenders imprisoned in Iran,” reacted the office of the High Commissioner for the UN for Human Rights.
The women of #Iran have been an inspiration to the world, courageously advocating for human rights, risking repression, harassment, violence and detention. We call for the release of all rights defenders arbitrarily detained. pic.twitter.com/Qqr046IFB0
— UN Human Rights (@UNHumanRights) October 6, 2023
In the same sense, during a press conference, the president of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, Berit Reiss-Andersenexpressed hope that Iranian authorities will release Mohammadi so that he can receive the award in person.
The Secretary General of the United Nations, António Guterressaid that the award given to Mohammadi is “a tribute to all women who fight for their rights by risking their freedom, health and even their lives.”
In turn, he considered it “an important reminder that the rights of women and girls are facing strong resistance, including through the persecution of human rights defenders, in Iran and elsewhere.”
Today’s #NobelPeacePrizeawarded to Narges Mohammadi, is an important reminder that women’s rights are facing a strong pushback, in Iran & elsewhere.
This Prize is a tribute to all the women fighting for their rights at the risk of their freedom, health & even their lives.
— António Guterres (@antonioguterres) October 6, 2023
NGOs joined the request for his release International Amnesty (AI)y Human Rights Watch (HRW) who demanded that they “immediately and unconditionally release Mohamadi” following congratulating the activist on an award that commemorates “her fight once morest the oppression of women in Iran and to protect the freedom of all.”
AI defended in a statement the importance of an award that “will not facilitate his release, but sends a clear message to the Iranian authorities that their repression once morest peaceful critics and human rights defenders will not go unanswered.”
The American president, Joe Bidenstated in a statement: “This award is a recognition that, although she is currently unjustly detained in Evin Prison, the world still hears Narges Mohammadi’s voice calling for freedom and equality.”
Complaints and convictions
in his book “White Torture”, Mohammadi denounces the living conditions of prisoners, especially in isolationabuses that she herself claims to have suffered.
Between May 2015 and October 2020, she was imprisoned for having “formed and led an illegal group”, urging the abolition of capital punishment, and was sentenced once more in May 2021 to 80 lashes and 30 months of detention for “propaganda once morest the system” y “rebellion” once morest the prison authority.
In November 2021, she was arrested near Tehran, where she was attending a ceremony in memory of a man killed in 2019 during a demonstration once morest rising fuel prices.
“The price of the struggle is not only torture and prison, it is a heart that tears with each deprivation, a suffering that penetrates to the core”Narges Mohammadi
“The price of the struggle is not only torture and prison, it is a heart that tears with every deprivation, a suffering that penetrates to the core,” Mohammadi wrote to the AFP news agency in September.
“I haven’t seen Kiana and Ali in over eight years, and I haven’t even heard their voices in over a year and a half. “It is an unbearable and indescribable pain,” she lamented. Her twin children, 17, and her husband, Taghi Rahmani, live in France.
Her husband Rahmani recently expressed that they only had “five or six years of life together in 24 years of marriage,” he noted that the activist has a heart condition and assured that “she is the most determined person” he knows, who “has never given up, they can’t break her.”
For his part, Mohammadi admitted to having “practically no prospect of freedom”, but has not failed to highlight on his social network that “the Evin women’s pavilion “It is one of the most active, resilient and cheerful political prisoner wards in Iran.”
“The prison has always been the heart of the opposition and resistance in Iran, and for me it also embodies the essence of life in all its beauty,” said the new Nobel Peace Prize winner.
“The prison has always been the heart of the opposition and resistance in Iran, and for me it also embodies the essence of life in all its beauty”Narges Mohammadi
Mohammadi is also vice president of the Center for Human Rights Defenders, founded by Iranian Nobel Peace Prize winner Shirin Ebadi (2003), which fights among other causes for the abolition of the death penalty.
The 2023 Nobel Prize is awarded with 11 million Swedish crowns, approximately one million dollars at the current exchange rate.
Since 1901, 104 Nobel Peace Prizes have been awarded. but on 19 occasions the committee members vacated the award.
Last year it fell to the Belarusian human rights activist Ales Bialiatski, sentenced to 10 years in prison in March 2023, and to the Memorial entities (a Russian NGO that was dissolved by an order from the Supreme Court following its repeated refusal to label itself as a foreign agent) and the Center for Civil Liberties (Ukraine).
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