OSLO (Reuters) – The 2023 Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded to Narges Mohammadi, an Iranian journalist and human rights activist imprisoned in Tehran, the Norwegian Nobel committee announced on Friday.
Narges Mohammadi, 51, campaigns in particular for women’s rights and the abolition of the death penalty. She has already been imprisoned several times, and is currently serving a sentence in Evin Prison, Tehran, since September 2021.
Narges Mohammadi told the New York Times after her award was announced that she would never stop fighting for democracy and equality, even if it meant staying in prison.
“I will continue to fight against the relentless discrimination, tyranny and gender-based oppression carried out by the oppressive religious government until women are liberated,” she said in a statement cited by the newspaper.
“We hope to send a message to women around the world who live in conditions where they are systematically discriminated against: ‘be courageous, don’t give up,'” Norwegian Nobel committee chair Berit Reiss-Andersen told Reuters.
“If the Iranian authorities make the right decision, they will release her so that she can be present to receive this honor (in December), which is what we hope for above all,” she added.
According to Reporter Without Borders, Narges Mohammadi was sentenced to more than 10 years in prison, a sentence which was increased after the activist denounced the sexual violence committed by officers on detainees.
She is notably accused of anti-state propaganda and her sentence could be further extended due to the 5 ongoing trials brought against her, according to the NGO.
If the Iranian authorities have not yet commented on the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to Narges Mohammadi, the semi-official Fars news agency criticized a prize obtained “from the hands of the West” because of “his actions against national security of Iran.
Narges Mohammadi is vice president of the Center for Human Rights Defenders in Iran, a non-governmental organization headed by Shirin Ebadi, winner of the 2003 Nobel Peace Prize.
She is the 19th woman to win the 122-year-old prize.
“This Nobel Prize will encourage Narges’ fight for human rights, but more importantly, it is actually a prize for women, life and freedom,” Taghi Rahmani told Reuters , her husband took refuge in Paris.
For its part, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) welcomed the award, which will highlight the courage and determination of Iranian women.
“We have seen their courage and determination in the face of reprisals, intimidation, violence and detention,” Elizabeth Throssell, an OHCHR spokesperson, told reporters in Geneva.
“They are harassed for what they wear or don’t wear. They are subject to increasingly strict legal, social and economic measures. It’s really something that highlights the courage and determination of women from Iran and which shows how much they are a source of inspiration for the whole world.”
The Nobel “season”, which opened on Monday, notably rewarded two French people with the Nobel Prize in physics, Pierre Agostini and Anne L’Huillier alongside the Hungarian Ferenc Krausz.
The Nobel Peace Prize, worth 11 million Swedish crowns (947,125.73 euros), will be awarded in Oslo on December 10, Alfred Nobel’s birthday.
The Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences, commonly known as the Nobel Prize in Economics, will be awarded on Monday.
(Reporting by Gwladys Fouche, Nerijus Adomaitis, Terje Solsvik and Tom Little in Oslo, Anthony Paone in Paris, Charlotte Van Campenhout in Brussels, written by Kate Entringer, edited by Blandine Hénault)
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