The Norwegian Nobel Committee awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for 2023 this Friday to the Iranian women’s rights activist Narges Mohammadi (Zanjan, 51 years old) for her “fight against the oppression of women in Iran” and the promotion of “human rights”. Rights and freedom for all.” Mohammadi is serving a sentence of more than ten years in Evin Prison in Tehran. The award was announced in Oslo by the organization’s president, Berit Reiss-Andersen, who praised the work of “the entire movement” in defense of women in Iran, led by, among others, today’s winner. When announcing the prize, Reiss-Andersen noted that with this award, the Norwegian Nobel Committee wants the women’s defense movement in Iran to continue and not be defeated. “If the Iranian authorities make the right decision, they will release her,” the Norwegian lawyer said. “In this way he will be able to be present when this award is presented, which is what we hope for,” he continued during his appearance.
The award undoubtedly deals a new blow to the Iranian regime, now headed by Ebrahim Raisi. However, the chair of the committee, who highlighted Mohammadi’s “courage” and “determination” in her announcement, pointed out in response to questions from the press that it was not the Norwegian organization’s job to assess the impact of this recognition in Tehran.
Mohammadi topped a final list of six nominees – out of a total of 351 candidates – that also included Afghan activist Mahbouba Seraj, International Court of Justice activist, indigenous rights activists Victoria Tauli-Corpuz and Juan Carlos Jintiach, and diplomat Kyaw Moe Tun and the Myanmar National Unity Consultative Council and the Human Rights Data Analysis Group (HRDAG), an organization that documents data on human rights violations.
Narges Mohammadi began her human rights work at university while studying physics and engineering. Since then, more than three decades ago, she has called for equal rights for Iranian women and condemned human rights violations by the Islamic Republic of Iran, particularly regarding prisoners of conscience and minorities. He has also campaigned for democracy, free elections and the abolition of the death penalty in his country. Mohammadi initially combined her work as an engineer in a state-owned company with journalistic work at reformist newspapers. She was arrested for the first time in 1998. This first stay in prison lasted a year.
The price this activist paid for her commitment to human rights was that she lost almost everything. Her job – she was laid off in 2009 –; Her freedom – she has been in and out of prison since the same year – and her health – she suffered multiple heart attacks in prison, where she was denied proper medical care and kept in isolation for long periods, according to Amnesty. International-. The Iranian regime has also prevented him from watching Ali and Kiana grow up, his 16-year-old twins whom he has not seen in eight years and who live in exile in France.
Convicted of “spreading propaganda.”
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Mohammadi is currently incarcerated in Cell No. 4 of the women’s wing of Evin Prison and convicted of “spreading propaganda against the state.” On September 16, a year after the death of Mahsa Yina Amini and the start of anti-regime protests in Iran, Mohammadi, along with other prisoners, burned her veil in the prison yard. This and other protests in support of the demonstrators led to six new court cases being opened against them in seven months. The judges have already extended his sentence by two years and three months for solidarity with the demonstrators.
Mohammadi, during a press conference at the UN headquarters in Geneva in June 2008.MAGALI GIRARDIN (EFE)
“In the face of this cruelty, no one should remain silent,” the youngest winner of the 2023 Nobel Peace Prize wrote in a letter collected by the TV channel ARTE about the death of the young Amini and the suppression of the protests. The text concludes: “We are fighting for a historic change from the Islamic Republic of Iran to a secular government based on human rights and democracy.” Allow us to continue our efforts; May resistance and struggle be accompanied by love and love of life. Let’s stand still. Let’s keep fighting, let’s take one step at a time and prepare for the next ones.”
Last year, this recognition for the peace struggle went to the director of the Belarusian NGO Viasná, Ales Bialiatski; the Russian Memorial Foundation, which was already liquidated by the Kremlin and the Russian judiciary at the end of 2021, and the Ukrainian Center for Civil Liberties. In more than 120 years of history, the Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded to 111 people (including 19 women) and 27 organizations. No Spaniard has won it, but five Latin Americans have won it: the Argentine Adolfo Pérez Esquivel (1980), the Mexican Alfonso García Robles (1982), the Costa Rican Óscar Arias (1987), the Guatemalan Rigoberta Menchú (1992) and the Colombian Juan Manuel Santos (2016).
The Nobel Peace Prize, worth around one million dollars, will be awarded in Oslo on December 10, the anniversary of the death of the Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel, who endowed the prizes in his will in 1895. This Nobel Prize is the only one of its kind six awards that were awarded and presented outside Sweden at the express request of Alfred Nobel, as Norway was a neighboring country at the time.
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