IRANIAN ACTIVIST AWARDED PEACE PRIZE
Narges Mohammadi, Iran’s most prominent human rights activist and an inmate in the country’s notorious Evin Prison, was awarded the 2023 Nobel Peace Prize on Friday, in an effort by the Norwegian Nobel Committee to support women’s rights in Iran.
Mohammadi, 51, has spent most of the last decade in and out of prison, charged with “spreading anti-state propaganda,” and she is currently serving a 10year sentence — part of
Iran’s long campaign to silence and punish her for her activism.
But even from inside prison, where she has suffered severe health problems, she has remained one of the most outspoken critics of Iran’s government.
In response to a major uprising, led by women, that rocked Iran last year after Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old, died in the custody of the country’s morality police, she has organized prison protests, written opinion pieces and led weekly workshops for female inmates about their rights.
By evening Friday, Mohammadi had not yet been able to call her family or friends to discuss the prize.
In a statement that her family released on her behalf in case she won the award, she vowed to stay in Iran even if that meant spending the rest of her life in captivity.
“Standing alongside the brave mothers of Iran,” she said, “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 gave a written statement to The New York Times on Thursday from Evin Prison in Tehran.
“I also hope this recognition makes Iranians protesting for change stronger and more organized,” she said. “Victory is near.”
The Nobel committee said this year’s prize additionally recognized the hundreds of thousands of people who have “demonstrated against Iran’s theocratic regime’s policies of discrimination and oppression targeting women.”
Iranian authorities did not react publicly to the news of Mohammadi’s award by nightfall in Tehran. State-affiliated media and analysts close to the government dismissed the prize, calling it a Western plot to stir further unrest.