The Norwegian Nobel Committee announced in Oslo on Friday, October 6, the decision to award the 2023 Peace Prize. The winner of the award was Iranian Narges Mohammadi, who is in prison. They decided to honor her for her fight against the oppression of women in her country and for promoting human rights and freedoms for all.
On Friday, October 6, the Norwegian Nobel Committee announced the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to Narges Mohammadi of Iran for fighting for women’s rights in that country and promoting human rights and freedoms.
“He fights on behalf of women against systematic discrimination and oppression,” said Berit Reiss-Andersen, president of the Nobel committee, at the ceremony in Oslo.
BREAKING NEWS
The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided to award the 2023 #NobelPeacePrize to Narges Mohammadi for her fight against the oppression of women in Iran and her fight to promote human rights and freedom for all.#NobelPrize pic.twitter.com/2fyzoYkHyf— The Nobel Prize (@NobelPrize) October 6, 2023
Who was Narges Mohammadi
Narges Mohammadi is 51 years old. She was vice president of the banned Center for Human Rights Defenders in Iran. She has been in prison again since last year. She was arrested 13 times throughout her life. The authorities in Tehran sentenced her to a total of 31 years in prison and 154 lashes.
As a young physics student, Narges Mohammadi had already distinguished herself as an advocate for equality and women’s rights. After graduation, she worked as an engineer as well as a columnist for various pro-reform newspapers. In 2003, she became involved with the Center for Human Rights in Tehran, an organization founded by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Shirin Ebadi. In 2011, Mohammadi was first arrested and sentenced to years in prison for her efforts to help jailed activists and their families.
Two years later, after her release on bail, Mohammadi became involved in a campaign against the death penalty. Her anti-death penalty activism led to her re-arrest in 2015 and a sentence of additional years in prison. Upon her return to prison, she began to speak out against the regime’s systematic use of torture and sexual violence against political prisoners, especially women, which is practiced in Iranian prisons.
While in prison, Narges expressed support for demonstrators and organized solidarity actions among her fellow inmates, the Nobel Committee notes, emphasizing that in her person it honors all women fighting for their rights in Iran.
Mohammadi is the 19th woman to be awarded the Nobel Prize and the second Iranian woman to achieve this feat. Before Mohammadi, Shirin Ebadi was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2003. Mohammadi was recently jailed for nationwide protests over the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini. Amini died after being detained by the country’s morality police. In the movement that started across the country after Amini’s death, more than 500 people were killed in the action of security forces while about 22 thousand people were arrested.
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Noble Prize
The Nobel Prize carries a cash prize of 11 million Swedish kronor (about 1 million US dollars). The winners are also presented with an 18-karat gold medal and diploma at the awards ceremony in December. The winner of the prestigious Nobel Peace Prize was selected by a Norwegian expert committee from among 350 nominees. Last year’s prize was won by human rights activists from Ukraine, Belarus and Russia, in what was seen as a strong message to Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Belarusian counterpart and allies. Those awarded the Nobel Peace Prize include South African anti-apartheid leader Nelson Mandela, former US President Barack Obama, former Russian President Mikhail Gorbachev and Myanmar’s pro-democracy leader Aun Suu Kyi. Unlike other Nobel Prizes, which are selected and announced in Stockholm, the prize’s founder, Alfred Nobel, willed that the Peace Prize be decided by the five-member Norwegian Nobel Committee in Oslo, which is formed by the Norwegian Parliament.