The 2023 Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Narges Mohammadi for her fight against the oppression of women in Iran and for promoting human rights and freedom for all.
An award given among 305 nominations, as the Norwegian committee announced in February – unlike the other prizes, the Peace Prize is awarded to Oslo – a third of which are organizations and the other two hundred names of people acted.
Narges Mohammadi, 51 years old, is one of Iran’s most prominent human rights activists. She has dedicated her career to fighting state repression, with a particular focus on women’s rights. He is currently serving a 10-year sentence in Tehran’s Evin Prison for “spreading anti-state propaganda.”
She paid for her struggles with the loss of freedom, torture and separation from her husband and two children, who live in exile in France and whom the activist has not seen in person for eight years. The Nobel Committee emphasized that “the Iranian regime arrested her 13 times, sentenced her five times to a total of 31 years in prison and 154 lashes,” and recalled her “courageous fight against the death penalty.” Now the same committee is demanding that Iran release her so she can accept the award.
But even from prison, Mohammadi managed to organize protests, and as part of the women-led uprising that rocked Iran last year after the killing of Mahsa Amini, she wrote essays and organized seminars for female prisoners about their rights. For years, she supplemented her career as an engineer by working as a columnist for several newspapers that advocated for women’s rights.
On their official Instagram page, the family wrote that the Nobel Prize ceremony was “a profound and historic moment for Iran’s struggle for freedom” and an extraordinary recognition “especially for the women and girls of Iran, with whom she captivated the world with her courage.” the fight for freedom and equality.
On It reminds us that where women are safe, everyone is safe.”
Mohammadi, who studied physics and later became an engineer, is the second Iranian woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize. In 2003 it went to Shirin Ebadi, a human rights lawyer, mentor and longtime colleague of Mohammadi. The two women worked together in Iran at the Defenders of Human Rights Center, which Ebadi founded in 2001. In an interview with Corriere on September 30, Ebadi predicted: “In my opinion, the next Nobel Peace Prize will go to women, an Iranian and an Afghan for his courage.”
It is not the first prize for Mohammadi. In May, the United Nations chose her as one of three winners of the World Press Freedom Prize.
In a letter published by The New York Times last June, Mohammadi wrote: “I must keep my eyes on the horizon and the future, even if the prison walls are high and close and block my view.” And she added: “The Global support and recognition of my work in defense of human rights makes me more determined, responsible, passionate and hopeful.”