The Nobel Peace Prize was awarded on Friday to imprisoned women’s rights campaigner Narges Mohammadi, honoured for her fight against the oppression of women in Iran.
Mohammadi was honoured “for her fight against the oppression of women in Iran and her fight to promote human rights and freedom for all”, said Berit Reiss-Andersen, the head of the Norwegian Nobel Committee in Oslo.
Mohammadi has spent much of the past two decades in and out of jail for her campaign against the mandatory hijab for women and the death penalty.
She is the vice-president of the Defenders of Human Rights Centre founded by Iranian human rights lawyer Shirin Ebadi, herself a Nobel Peace Prize laureate in 2003.
The committee hoped Iran would release her so she could attend the prize ceremony in December. “If the Iranian authorities make the right decision, they will release her. So she can be present to receive this honour, which is what we primarily hope for,” Reiss-Andersen said.
“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,” she added.
The award “really highlights the courage and determination of the women of Iran and how they are an inspiration to the world”, UN human rights office spokeswoman Elizabeth Throssell told reporters in Geneva.
Last year, against the backdrop of the war in Ukraine, the prize went to a symbolic trio opposed to the war — Russian human rights group Memorial, Ukraine’s Center for Civil Liberties and jailed Belarusian rights advocate Ales Bialiatski.
The prize comes with a gold medal, a diploma and a prize sum of 11 million Swedish kronor (about $1m).—AFP
