On 6 October, 2023, it was announced that imprisoned HRD Narges Mohammadi, who has campaigned for women’s rights, democracy and against the death penalty in Iran for years, has won the Nobel Peace Prize this year.
Mohammadi, 51, is one of the most recognised Human Rights Defenders in the world. She has received 8 major human rights awards according to THF’s digest of human rights awards [see: https://www.trueheroesfilms.org/thedigest/laureates/07C20809-99E2-BDC0-FDC3-E217FF91C126], but no media outlets got it right.
“This prize is first and foremost a recognition of the very important work of a whole movement in Iran with with its undisputed leader, Nargis Mohammadi,” said Berit Reiss-Andersen, the chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee who announced the prize in Oslo.
Mohammadi’s most recent incarceration began when she was detained in 2021 after she attended a memorial for a person killed in nationwide 2019 protests sparked by an increase in gasoline prices. She’s been held at Tehran’s notorious Evin Prison, whose inmates include those with Western ties and political prisoners. See also: https://humanrightsdefenders.blog/2016/09/30/iran-shameful-sentences-for-narges-mohammadi-issa-saharkhiz-arash-sadeghi-no-detente-in-human-rights/
Reiss-Andersen said Mohammadi has been imprisoned 13 times and convicted five times. In total, she has been sentenced to 31 years in prison.
She is the 19th woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize and the second Iranian woman, after human rights activist Shirin Ebadi won the award in 2003. [see: https://www.trueheroesfilms.org/thedigest/laureates/DCF78E6F-7015-4794-B6D9-1192BB84568C]
From behind bars, Mohammadi contributed an opinion piece for The New York Times. “What the government may not understand is that the more of us they lock up, the stronger we become,” she wrote.
https://apnews.com/article/nobel-peace-prize-oslo-776ca1bcf0fde827ad90af8a069907eb
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-10-06/nobel-peace-prize-2023-awarded-to-narges-mohammadi/102946290
https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/2023-nobel-peace-prize-1.6984334
https://www.frontlinedefenders.org/en/profile/narges-mohammadi
This post was originally published on Hans Thoolen on Human Rights Defenders and their awards.
