2023-12-10T16:11:28+00:00
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/ Iranian activist Narges Mohammadi, imprisoned in Tehran, denounced her country’s “tyrannical and anti-women religious regime,” in a speech delivered on her behalf and by her two sons, on Sunday, during the Nobel Peace Prize award ceremony in Oslo.
According to Agence France-Presse, Mohammadi, 51 years old, is an activist known for her struggle against the death penalty and the compulsory wearing of the hijab in the Islamic Republic. She has been in prison in Tehran since November 2021, which prevented her from personally receiving the prestigious award.
During the celebration in Oslo, her son Ali and his twin sister Kiana (17 years old), who have lived in France since 2015, received the award on her behalf. The two young men read the letter that their mother sent from her prison cell.
In her written letter, “Behind the High, Cold Prison Walls,” Mohammadi said, “I am a woman from the Middle East, from a region that, although it is the heir to a rich civilization, is currently caught in the trap of war and prey to the flames of terrorism and extremism.”
She added, “I am a proud Iranian and I am honored to contribute to this civilization, which today is a victim of the oppression of a tyrannical and anti-women religious regime,” and urged the international community to do more for human rights.
In her absence, her chair was left vacant in a symbolic gesture, and her picture was placed above it.
After she was arrested for the first time 22 years ago, Mohammadi spent most of the past two decades in and out of prison due to her human rights activism.
This woman was one of the most prominent faces supporting the protests that Iran witnessed starting in September 2022, after the death of Mahsa Amini after she was arrested by the morality police in Tehran for not adhering to the country’s strict dress code.
These movements included demonstrations led by women who raised the slogan “A Woman Lives Freedom,” during which they removed their veils and burned them.
On Sunday, Mohammadi reiterated that “the compulsory hijab imposed by the government is neither a religious duty nor a cultural model, but rather a means of controlling and subjugating the entire society,” describing the compulsory hijab as a “government disgrace.”
In the speech that was read to the Norwegian royal family, the activist considered that the Islamic Republic “lives estranged from its people,” and particularly condemned oppression, subjugation of the judicial system, propaganda and censorship, nepotism and corruption.
“Against discrimination”
While she was being celebrated in Oslo, Narges Mohammadi was continuing her hunger strike behind bars in solidarity with the Baha’i sect, the largest religious minority in Iran and complaining of discrimination.
In the history of the Nobel Prize, which extends for more than a century, Mohammadi is the fifth laureate to receive the Peace Prize while in detention, after the German Karl von Ossetsky, the Burmese Aung San Suu Kyi, the Chinese Liu Xiaobo, and the Belarusian Alice Belyatsky.
The chair of the Nobel Prize Committee, Berrit Reiss-Andersen, said, “Narges Muhammadi’s struggle can be compared to the struggle of Albert Luthuli, Desmond Tutu, and Nelson Mandela (who all won the Nobel Prize), and their struggle continued for more than 30 years before the end of the apartheid regime in South Africa.”
She added, “Women in Iran have been fighting against discrimination for more than 30 years. Their dreams of a brighter future will eventually come true.”
For their part, Mohammadi’s two sons, who have been separated from their mother for more than eight years, said they do not know whether they will see her again.
Her daughter, Kiana, said on Saturday, “I am personally very pessimistic,” while her brother said he was “very optimistic.”
The authorities in the Islamic Republic severely suppressed the protests. According to the non-governmental organization “Human Rights in Iran”, 551 demonstrators, including dozens of women and children, were killed by security forces, and thousands more were arrested.
Members of Amini’s family were prevented from leaving Iran to receive the Sakharov Prize awarded by the European Parliament to the late young woman at an event in Paris on Sunday, according to their lawyer in France.
“The Iranian people, with perseverance, will overcome oppression and tyranny,” Mohammadi said, adding, “This is certain.”
The Nobel Prizes in other disciplines (literature, chemistry, medicine, physics and economics) will be awarded in Stockholm on Sunday.