On Friday, Narges Mohammadi, an imprisoned Iranian women’s rights activist, was awarded the 2023 Nobel Peace Prize. A panel of specialists in Norway chose the former vice president of the Defenders of Human Rights Center (DHRC) group from a list of around 350 nominees.
Mohammadi, 51, has done her work despite repeated arrests and years in prison for her advocacy.
“This prize is first and foremost a recognition of the very important work of a whole movement in Iran, with its undisputed leader, Narges Mohammadi,” said Berit Reiss-Andersen, chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, who announced the award in Oslo. “The Nobel committee has no say over the prize’s impact.” We hope it serves as motivation to continue the work in whatever manner this movement deems appropriate.”
Mohammadi’s most recent detention began in 2021, when she was jailed after attending a memorial for a person died in nationwide protests in 2019 in response to an increase in fuel prices. She is being jailed at Tehran’s notorious Evin Prison, which houses people with Western ties as well as political detainees.
According to Reiss-Andersen, Mohammadi was imprisoned 13 times and convicted five times. She was sentenced to 31 years in jail in total. She is the 19th woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize, and the second Iranian woman to do so since Shirin Ebadi received the prize in 2003. Additionally, you can also read about- Jon Fosse, Norway’s Most Celebrated Playwright, Wins Nobel Prize 2023 in Literature
Mohammadi was imprisoned during the recent protests over the death of Mahsa Amini, 22, in police custody. This ignited one of the most ferocious challenges to Iran’s theocracy in history. During a strong security crackdown, approximately 500 people were killed, and over 22,000 more were detained.
From behind bars, Mohammadi wrote for The New York Times, “What the government may not understand is that the more of us they lock up, the stronger we become.”
In 2008, Iranian authorities stormed the DHRC’s Tehran office and prevented the organization from operating.
Mohammadi and fellow prisoner Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a British-Iranian national, declared plans to go on hunger strike in Tehran’s notorious Evin Prison in 2019 to protest medical care rejection. Iran released Zaghari-Ratcliffe in 2022 after the UK government settled a decades-old debt with Tehran, while Mohammadi remains in Evin.
Last year’s prize was won by human rights campaigners from Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia, in a sharp rebuke to Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Belarusian counterpart and friend.
Read More: The Nobel Winners Announced So Far in 2023
The prize can be given to either individuals or organizations. Nelson Mandela, Barack Obama, Mikhail Gorbachev, Aung San Suu Kyi, and the United Nations are among the former recipients.
Unlike the other Nobel prizes, which are chosen and announced in Stockholm, Alfred Nobel stipulated that the peace prize be decided and presented in Oslo by the five-member Norwegian Nobel Committee.
The Norwegian parliament appoints the independent commission.
The committee received 351 nominations this year, with 259 for people and 92 for organizations. Former Nobel Peace Prize recipients, members of the committee, heads of state, members of parliaments, and professors of political science, history, and international law are all eligible to make nominations.
The peace prize is the fifth prize announced this year. The Nobel committee had previously given the prize for literature to Norwegian writer Jon Fosse. The chemistry prize was awarded to Moungi Bawendi, Louis Brus, and Alexei Ekimov of the United States on Wednesday.
The physics prize was awarded on Tuesday to Anne L’Huillier, a French-Swedish physicist, Pierre Agostini, a French scientist, and Ferenc Krausz, a Hungarian-born physicist. On Monday, Hungarian-American Katalin Karikó and American Drew Weissman were awarded the Nobel Prize in medicine. If you want you can also read – Nobel Prize 2023 in Chemistry Awarded for Discovery of Quantum Dots
On Monday, the recipient of the economics prize, technically known as the Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel, will be announced.
The awards are presented at ceremonies in Oslo and Stockholm in December. They come with a financial prize of 11 million Swedish kronor (about $1 million). When they receive their Nobel Prizes in December, winners also receive an 18-carat gold medal and diploma.