“Victory is certain”: Iranian women’s rights activist Narges Mohammadi, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, secretly sent a message from her cell in which she sharply attacked the power in Tehran.
• Also read: Nobel Peace Prize for imprisoned Iranian activist Narges Mohammadi
In this message, read in French by her daughter Kiana Rahmani and published on the official Nobel website, the 51-year-old activist and journalist expresses her “most sincere gratitude” to the Norwegian Nobel Committee and once again criticizes the obligation imposed and calls on women in Iran to have one to wear veils and castigates the Iranian authorities.
“The compulsory hijab is the main source of domination and oppression in society, aimed at maintaining and maintaining an authoritarian religious government,” she explains in the voice of her 17-year-old daughter, who has fled to France with the rest of her family.
“A government that has institutionalized disadvantage and poverty in society for 45 years. A government built on lies, deception, fraud and intimidation. A government that has endangered peace and stability in the region and the world through its warlike policies,” she said.
Narges Mohammadi was arrested 13 times, sentenced five times to a total of 31 years in prison and 154 lashes, and has been imprisoned again since 2021. She is one of the main faces of the “Women, Life, Freedom” uprising in Iran.
The movement, in which women removed their veils, cut their hair and demonstrated in the streets, was sparked last year by the death of a 22-year-old Iranian Kurdish woman, Mahsa Amini, after she was arrested in Tehran for non-compliance the strict Islamic dress code.
The protest was heavily suppressed.
“The strength of this movement lies in the actions of Iranian women. We know what we want more and better than what we don’t want,” says Narges Mohammadi.
Absent from the Nobel Prize ceremony
On Saturday, another young Iranian woman, Armita Garawand, a 17-year-old high school student, died under controversial circumstances after being in a coma for a month.
Several NGOs claim she was attacked on the subway by the morality police responsible for enforcing the requirement for women to wear veils in public, while the authorities deny this, citing unease.
“We, the Iranian people, strive for democracy, freedom, human rights and equality. “The Islamic Republic is the main obstacle to the realization of this national demand,” explains Narges Mohammadi.
“We strive, through solidarity and the power of a non-violent and unstoppable process, to overcome this religious authoritarian government and revive the honor and human dignity of Iran,” she emphasized.
And finally: “Victory is not easy, but it is certain.”
It is unclear how the activist got her message across in Evin Prison, where she is being held.
The Nobel Committee awarded her the Peace Prize on October 6, praising “her fight against the oppression of women in Iran and her fight to promote human rights and freedom for all.”
Kiana Rahmani, who read Narges Mohammadi’s 10-minute message, and her twin brother Ali will represent their imprisoned mother at the awards ceremony in Oslo on December 10, the Nobel Institute announced on Wednesday.
After the German pacifist Carl von Ossietzky in 1935, the Burmese activist Aung San Suu Kyi in 1991, the Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo in 2010 and the Belarusian Ales Beliatski in 2022, this is the fifth time in Nobel history that the prestigious The award is given to a captured personality.