Peace: For fighting oppression, Iranian woman Narges Mohammadi wins the Nobel Prize 2023
Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: Iran’s human rights activist Narges Mohammadi, who is imprisoned, won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2023 for fighting against the oppression of women.
The media reported on Friday that she has a long history of imprisonment, harsh sentences, and international calls for reviews of her case.
“She fights for women against systematic discrimination and oppression,” said Berit Reiss-Andersen, the chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee who announced the Prize in Oslo, Norway.
Officials arrested Mohammadi in November 2022 after she attended a memorial for a victim of violent protests. Angry Iranian women led a massive, nationwide agitation against the Islamist rule after a 22-year-old woman, Mahsa Amini, died in a hospital on September 16, 2022, because of the injuries she sustained during her custody. She had been arrested by the Islamic Republic’s hijab police, known as the morality police, in Tehran, allegedly for not fully complying with the compulsory hijab rules of the country.
Before being jailed, Mohammadi was the Vice President of the banned Defenders of Human Rights Centre in Iran. She was close to Iranian Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Shirin Ebadi, who founded the center.
Ebadi left Iran after the disputed re-election of then-President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in 2009 which touched off unprecedented protests and harsh crackdowns by authorities.
In 2018 Mohammadi, an engineer, was awarded the 2018 Andrei Sakharov Prize.
In 2022, she was tried in five minutes and sentenced to eight years in prison and 70 lashes.
The Nobel Prizes carry a cash award of 11 million Swedish kronor (about USD 1 million). Winners also receive an 18-carat gold medal and diploma at the award ceremonies in December.
