Date:2023/10/06 Chinese
“Zan – Zendegi – Azadi” “Woman – Life – Freedom”
The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided to award the Nobel Peace Prize for 2023 to Narges Mohammadi for her fight against the oppression of women in Iran and her fight to promote human rights and freedom for all. Her brave struggle has come with tremendous personal costs. Altogether, the regime has arrested her 13 times, convicted her five times, and sentenced her to a total of 31 years in prison and 154 lashes. Ms Mohammadi is still in prison as I speak.
Announcement of the 2023 Nobel Peace Prize to Narges Mohammadi by Berit Reiss-Andersen, Chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, on 6 October 2023. Production by NRK.
In September 2022 a young Kurdish woman, Mahsa Jina Amini, was killed while in the custody of the Iranian morality police. Her killing triggered the largest political demonstrations against Iran’s theocratic regime since it came to power in 1979. Under the slogan “Woman – Life – Freedom”, hundreds of thousands of Iranians took part in peaceful protests against the authorities’ brutality and oppression of women. The regime cracked down hard on the protests: more than 500 demonstrators were killed. Thousands were injured, including many who were blinded by rubber bullets fired by the police. At least 20 000 people were arrested and held in regime custody.
“She is the symbol of what it means to be a freedom fighter in Iran”
Immediately following the announcement, Berit Reiss-Andersen, Chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, was interviewed by freelance journalist Stig Arild Pettersen regarding the 2023 Nobel Peace Prize. Production by NRK.
FILE PHOTO: Iranian human rights activist and the vice president of the Defenders of Human Rights Center (DHRC) Narges Mohammadi poses in this undated handout picture. Mohammadi family archive photos/Handout via REUTERS/File PhotoREUTERS
The motto adopted by the demonstrators – “Woman – Life – Freedom” – suitably expresses the dedication and work of Narges Mohammadi.
Woman. She fights for women against systematic discrimination and oppression.
Life. She supports women’s struggle for the right to live full and dignified lives. This struggle across Iran has been met with persecution, imprisonment, torture and even death.
Freedom. She fights for freedom of expression and the right of independence, and against rules requiring women to remain out of sight and to cover their bodies. The freedom demands expressed by demonstrators apply not only to women, but to the entire population.
In the 1990s, as a young physics student, Narges Mohammadi was already distinguishing herself as an advocate for equality and women’s rights. After concluding her studies, she worked as an engineer as well as a columnist in various reform-minded newspapers. In 2003 she became involved with the Defenders of Human Rights Center in Tehran, an organisation founded by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Shirin Ebadi. In 2011 Ms Mohammadi was arrested for the first time and sentenced to many years of imprisonment for her efforts to assist incarcerated activists and their families.
Two years later, after her release on bail, Ms Mohammadi immersed herself in a campaign against use of the death penalty. Iran has long been among the countries that execute the highest proportion of their inhabitants annually. Just since January 2022, more than 860 prisoners have been punished by death in Iran.
Her activism against the death penalty led to the re-arrest of Ms Mohammadi in 2015, and to a sentence of additional years behind walls. Upon her return to prison, she began opposing the regime’s systematic use of torture and sexualised violence against political prisoners, especially women, that is practised in Iranian prisons.
Last year’s wave of protests became known to the political prisoners held inside the notorious Evin prison in Tehran. Once again, Ms Mohammadi assumed leadership. From prison she expressed support for the demonstrators and organised solidarity actions among her fellow inmates. The prison authorities responded by imposing even stricter conditions. Ms Mohammadi was prohibited from receiving calls and visitors. She nevertheless managed to smuggle out an article which the New York Times published on the one-year anniversary of Mahsa Jina Amini’s killing. The message was: “The more of us they lock up, the stronger we become.” From captivity, Ms Mohammadi has helped to ensure that the protests have not ebbed out.
Narges Mohammadi is a woman, a human rights advocate, and a freedom fighter. In awarding her this year’s Nobel Peace Prize, the Norwegian Nobel Committee wishes to honour her courageous fight for human rights, freedom, and democracy in Iran. This year’s Peace Prize also recognises the hundreds of thousands of people who, in the preceding year, have demonstrated against the theocratic regime’s policies of discrimination and oppression targeting women. Only by embracing equal rights for all can the world achieve the fraternity between nations that Alfred Nobel sought to promote. The award to Narges Mohammadi follows a long tradition in which the Norwegian Nobel Committee has awarded the Peace Prize to those working to advance social justice, human rights, and democracy. These are important preconditions for lasting peace.
Oslo, 6 October 2023
Nobel Peace Prize Winner Mohammadi Says Global Support Makes Her 'More Hopeful' -NYT
DUBAI (Reuters) - Iranian Nobel Peace Prize winner Narges Mohammadi said in a statement to the New York Times on Friday that global support and recognition of her human rights advocacy makes her "more resolved, more responsible, more passionate and more hopeful", according to a posting on the X platform.
"I also hope this recognition makes Iranians protesting for change stronger and more organized. Victory is near," said Mohammadi, a leading human rights activist.
(Reporting by Dubai newsroom; Editing by Christina Fincher)
Copyright 2023 Thomson Reuters.
Who is Nobel Peace Prize winner Narges Mohammadi?
By Raffi Berg
BBC News Online Middle East editor
Narges Mohammadi, who has won the 2023 Nobel Peace Prize, has for years been a prominent human rights figure in Iran.
She was awarded the prize for her fight against the oppression of women in the country, with the head of the Nobel committee calling her a "freedom fighter". She has also tirelessly campaigned for the abolition of the death penalty in Iran, which has one of the highest execution rates in the world.
Despite being in jail almost continuously since 2010, Ms Mohammadi has managed to publicise abuses even from inside prison.
Ms Mohammadi, 51, has been arrested 13 times, convicted five times, and sentenced to a total of 31 years in prison. She is currently in jail for "spreading propaganda".
Her husband, political activist Taghi Rahmani, lives in exile in Paris with their two children and they have not seen one another for years.
Mr Rahmani told BBC Persian his wife was "a representative of all those whom this prize has gone to. It belongs to Woman, Life, Freedom [the slogan adopted by protesters], which was a huge movement in Iran and still continues to exist. It makes us very happy."
In awarding Ms Mohammadi the prize, the head of the Nobel committee noted that she fought for women against systemic discrimination and oppression.
Despite her incarceration, Ms Mohammadi has not been silenced. Last year, in a letter from Evin Prison in Tehran she detailed how women detained in the anti-government protests which were then sweeping the country were being sexually and physically abused.
The protests were triggered by the death in custody in September 2022 of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, arrested for allegedly violating strict dress codes.
Ms Mohammadi also wrote a book, White Torture: Interviews with Iranian Women Prisoners, documenting her own and 12 other inmates' experiences of solitary confinement.
"I declare once more that this is a cruel and inhumane punishment," she wrote. "I will not rest until it is abolished."
Ms Mohammadi's achievement comes 20 years after the peace prize was awarded to another Iranian human rights activist, Shirin Ebadi. Ms Mohammadi is vice-president of the Defender of Human Rights Center in Iran, which was founded by Ms Ebadi.
Ms Mohammadi has won a string of human rights awards down the years, but the fact that she has received the world's most prestigious peace accolade gives her a level of international recognition which will not be welcomed by Iran.