As a slap in the face to Iran’s theocratic rulers and a boost for demonstrators, the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to imprisoned women’s rights activist Narges Mohammadi on Friday in Oslo.
The awarding committee stated that Mohammadi, 51, who has worked for three decades for women’s rights and abolition of the death penalty, should be released in recognition of those behind recent historic demonstrations in Iran.
Berit Reiss-Andersen, the chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, told Reuters, “We hope to send the message to women all around the world who are living in conditions where they are systematically discriminated: ‘have the courage, keep on going.'”
“We want to give the prize to encourage Narges Mohammadi and the hundreds of thousands of people who have been crying for exactly ‘Woman, Life, Freedom’ in Iran,” she continued, alluding to the major slogan of the protest movement.
Tehran has labelled the demonstrations as Western-led subversion, but the government has not yet responded.
However, the semi-official Fars news agency said that Mohammadi “received her prize from the Westerners” after becoming a media sensation “due to her acts against the national security.”
According to the rights group Front Line Defenders, Mohammadi is currently serving numerous terms in Tehran’s Evin Prison totaling around 12 years in detention.
Further reading: Iran Reinstates Police Patrols to Combat Veil Ignorance: Media
She is the deputy director of Shirin Ebadi’s non-governmental organisation, the Defenders of Human Rights Centre. Ebadi won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2003.
NARGES’ BOLD BATTLE CALL
Since Maria Ressa of the Philippines shared the honour with Dmitry Muratov of Russia in 2021, Mohammadi is the first woman to win the 122-year-old medal alone.
“This Nobel Prize will embolden Narges’ fight for human rights, but more importantly, this is in fact a prize for the ‘women, life and freedom’ movement,” Mohammadi’s husband Taghi Rahmani told Reuters from his Paris apartment, where he was praising the news on TV.
Since 2012, Mohammadi has been arrested more than a dozen times and incarcerated three times in Evin prison, during which time she has been separated from her husband and children for a total of 15 years.
On the anniversary of Swedish businessman Alfred Nobel’s death in 1895, the awards will be delivered in Oslo. Her prize is worth 11 million Swedish crowns, or over $1 million.
People like Martin Luther King Jr. and Nelson Mandela have won in the past.
The New York Times reported that Mohammadi said she will continue to fight for democracy and equality from behind bars.
“I will continue to fight against the relentless discrimination, tyranny, and gender-based oppression by the oppressive religious government until the liberation of women,” she was reported as saying in the publication.
At the same time she was receiving her prize, a teenage girl in Iran was reportedly beaten into a coma on the Tehran subway for not covering her head.
Iranian authorities said the rumours are not true.
FAME ACROSS THE WORLD
Mohammadi’s victory also came not even a year after Mahsa Amini, who was arrested for violating the Islamic Republic’s clothing code for women, was executed by morality police.
That sparked widespread protests, the largest threat to the Iranian leadership in years, which were met with a violent crackdown that claimed the lives of several hundred people.
The United Nations human rights office was among the many international organisations to pay respect, saying that the Nobel prize was a recognition to the courage of Iranian women. “We’ve seen their courage and determination in the face of reprisals, intimidation, violence, and detention,” said spokesperson Elizabeth Throssell.
Their clothing choice has become the target of harassment. They are a source of encouragement to people all across the world despite the increasingly severe legal, social, and economic measures taken against them.
Mohammadi’s brother commented on the massive reward, saying he hoped it would increase the security of Iranian activists. “The situation is very dangerous, activists there can lose their lives,” Hamidreza Mohammed told NRK, a Norwegian public station, from Oslo.
While the reward may assist reduce pressure on Iranian dissidents, it is highly unlikely to result in her release, according to Dan Smith, director of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.
