Jailed Iranian activist Narges Mohammadi wins 2023 Nobel Peace Prize

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Jailed Iranian activist Narges Mohammadi wins 2023 Nobel Peace Prize

11:18 CAT | 06 Oct 2023

FILE - Iranian human rights activist and the vice president of the Defenders of Human Rights Center (DHRC) Narges Mohammadi poses in this undated handout picture. [File photo: Mohammadi family archive photos/Handout via Reuters]

Narges Mohammadi, a jailed Iranian women’s rights advocate, won the 2023 Nobel Peace Prize on Friday.

Imprisoned activist Narges Mohammadi won the Nobel Peace Prize Friday for fighting the oppression of women in Iran.

“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.

Authorities arrested Mohammadi in November after she attended a memorial for a victim of violent 2019 protests. Mohammadi has a long history of imprisonment, harsh sentences and international calls for reviews of her case.

Before being jailed, Mohammadi was vice president of the banned Defenders of Human Rights Center in Iran. Mohammadi has been 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 that touched off unprecedented protests and harsh crackdowns by authorities. In 2018, Mohammadi, an engineer, was awarded the 2018 Andrei Sakharov Prize.

In 2022, Mohammadi 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 $1 million). Winners also receive an 18-carat gold medal and diploma at the award ceremonies in December.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee picked the winner for the world’s most significant peace prize among 351 candidates, including 259 individuals and 92 organisations.

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

2023 #NobelPeacePrize laureate Narges Mohammadi’s brave struggle has come with tremendous personal costs. The Iranian regime has arrested her 13 times, convicted her five times, and sentenced her to a total of 31 years in prison and 154 lashes. Mohammadi is still in prison. pic.twitter.com/ooDEZAVX01

— The Nobel Prize (@NobelPrize) October 6, 2023

Last year, the prize went to human rights advocate Ales Bialiatski from Belarus, the Russian human rights group Memorial and the Ukrainian human rights organisation Center for Civil Liberties.

The winners had for many years promoted the right to criticise power and protect the fundamental rights of citizens, the committee said at the time, which came during the first year of Russia’s all-out war in Ukraine.

The Peace Prize is the only one of the Nobel prizes to be awarded in Norway’s capital Oslo, rather than Sweden’s capital Stockholm.

Over the past week, the Medicine, Physics, Chemistry and Literature Prizes have been announced. The final prize, for economics, is to be announced on Monday.

This year, the prizes are worth 11 million krona ($990,000) in each category.

Source: Reuters / AP / Al Jazeera