This Jailed Iranian Woman Activist Has Been Awarded The Nobel Peace Prize
51-year-old Narges Mohammadi has spent the last 30 years pushing for peaceful change in Iran.
A jailed Iranian woman activist has been awarded the 2023 Nobel Peace Prize.
51-year-old Narges Mohammadi has spent the last 30 years pushing for peaceful change in the country.
She has campaigned for Iran to end to the country’s mandatory hijab law, violence against women, and the death penalty.
For her activism, she has been arrested multiple times and spent the past 10 years in and out of prison.
Her husband, Taghi Rahmani, a political activist, and their two children fled to France in 2012, but Mohammadi stayed behind to continue her work.
She is currently serving 10 years in prison in Tehran for several charges, including “spreading anti-state propaganda”.
Despite this, she has continued her work from inside prison.
Mohammadi organized prison protests in support of Mahsa Amini, wrote a book about Iran’s treatment of prisoners and held workshops for women inmates about their rights.
On Friday Oct. 6, Mohammadi was awarded the 2023 Nobel Peace Prize for “her fight against the oppression of women in Iran and her fight to promote human rights and freedom for all”.
The Nobel committee also recognized the hundreds of thousands of people who have “demonstrated against Iran’s theocratic regime’s policies of discrimination and oppression targeting women”.
In a pre-written statement, Mohammadi vowed to stay in Iran and said she will “never stop striving for the realization of democracy, freedom and equality”.
She later told the New York Times that she hopes the recognition will make Iranians protesting for change stronger, adding that “victory is near”.
Iran’s foreign ministry has condemned the decision to award Mohammadi, saying it was “spiteful and politically motivated”.
Her win comes just days after a teen girl was allegedly beaten into a coma by “morality” police.
