Jailed Iranian activist Nargis Mohammadi won the Nobel Peace Prize.


  • Activists for women’s rights are serving 12 years in prison.
  • The Norwegian Nobel Committee praised the Iranian protesters.
  • The reward is likely to anger the government of the Islamic Republic.
  • The Iranian news agency noted the ‘reward of the West’

OSLO, Oct 6 (Reuters) – Nargis Mohammadi, an imprisoned Iranian women’s rights lawyer, won the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for her rebuke of Tehran’s theocratic leaders and encouragement of anti-government protesters.

The awarding committee said the prize honors those behind the recent unprecedented protests in Iran and calls for the release of Mohammadi, 51, who has campaigned for women’s rights and the abolition of the death penalty for three decades. Is.

“We hope to send a message to women around the world who are living in situations where they are systematically discriminated against: ‘Encourage Keep it up, keep it going’.”

“We want to give this prize to encourage Nargis Mohammadi and the millions of people who are calling for ‘women, life, freedom’ in Iran,” he added, referring to the main slogan of the protest movement.

There was no immediate official response from Tehran, which described the protests as a Western-led coup.

But the semi-official Fars news agency said Mohammadi had “received his reward from the West” after hitting the headlines “for his actions against national security”.

The New York Times quoted Mohammadi as saying that she will never stop fighting for democracy and equality, even if it means going to jail.

“I will continue to fight against the continued discrimination, oppression and gender-based oppression of the oppressive religious regime until women are freed,” the newspaper quoted her as saying in a statement.

According to the Frontline Defenders rights organization, Mohammadi is serving multiple prison terms of about 12 years in Tehran’s Avon prison, one of several periods she has been behind bars.

The charges also include spreading propaganda against the state.

She is the deputy head of the Defenders of Human Rights Center, an NGO headed by Shireen Ebadi, a 2003 Nobel Peace Prize laureate who lives in exile.

“I congratulate Nargis Mohammadi and all Iranian women for this award,” Abadi told Reuters. “This award will shine a light on the violation of women’s rights in the Islamic Republic … which has unfortunately proved irreparable.”

‘Ambulance Narcissus’ Fight’

Mohammadi is the 19th woman to win the 122-year-old prize and the first since Maria Ressa of the Philippines shared the award with Russia’s Dmitry Muratov in 2021.

Mohammadi’s husband, Taghi Rahmani, watched the announcement on TV at their home in Paris and applauded. “This Nobel Prize will encourage Nargis to fight for human rights, but more importantly, it is actually a prize for the ‘Women, Life and Freedom’ movement,” he told Reuters. “

Her brother, Hamidreza Mohammadi, said he was “overwhelmed” by the announcement and that the award would bolster the work of his sister and other activists.

“They will feel stronger in their efforts for human rights in Iran and for everyone who hopes for a better situation in Iran,” he told Reuters in Oslo.

Arrested more than a dozen times in her life, and held in Evan Jail three times since 2012, Mohammadi has been unable to see her husband for 15 years and her children for seven years.

His prize, worth 11 million Swedish crowns, or about $1 million, will be presented in Oslo on Dec. 10 on the anniversary of Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel, who founded the awards in his 1895 will.

Past winners range from Martin Luther King to Nelson Mandela.

Mohammadi’s award came as rights groups reported that an Iranian teenage girl had been hospitalized in a coma after a confrontation on the Tehran metro for not wearing a hijab.

Iranian officials deny these reports.

Global Tribute

Mohammadi’s honor from the Nobel committee also comes a year after the death of Mehsa Amini, 22, in custody by Iranian morality police for allegedly violating the Islamic Republic’s dress code for women.

It sparked months of nationwide protests that posed the biggest challenge to Shiite clerical rule in years, and was met with a deadly security crackdown that claimed hundreds of lives.

In response to the tributes from major international organizations, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the Nobel Prize “is a tribute to all the women who risk their freedom, their health and even their lives.” They are fighting for their rights”.

Dan Smith, head of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute think tank, said that while the reward could help ease pressure on Iranian opponents, Mohammadi’s release was unlikely.

Reporting by Gladys Fouche, Nerijs Adomitis, Terje Solsvik and Tom Little in Oslo, Alze Flicks in Stockholm, Parisa Hafizi in Dubai, Anthony Pavon in Paris, Charlotte von Kempenhout in Brussels, Michelle Nicholls, John Davison-Gabriel at the United Nations. Farber and Cecil Mantovani in Geneva; Written by Gwladys Fouche and Andrew Cawthorne; Edited by William Maclean

Our Standards: Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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Oversees news coverage for Reuters from Norway and Svalbard in the Arctic, oil platforms in the North Sea, and likes to predict who will win the Nobel Peace Prize. Born in France and with Reuters since 2010, she has worked for The Guardian, Agence France-Presse and Al Jazeera English, and speaks four languages.

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