Nobel Peace Prize 2023 awarded to jailed Iranian women’s rights campaigner Narges Mohammadi
- The awards committee said the prize honoured all those behind recent unprecedented demonstrations in Iran, and called for the release of Mohammadi from prison
- The Peace Prize was announced in Oslo, following medicine, physics, chemistry and literature prizes this week; the Nobel Prize awards were launched 122 years ago
This year’s Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded to jailed Iranian activist Narges Mohammadi for her fight against the oppression of women in her native Iran and her efforts to promote human rights and freedom.
Mohammadi, 51, has continued her struggle even after the regime in Tehran convicted her five times and sentenced her to a total of 31 years in jail and 154 lashes, the Oslo-based Norwegian Nobel Committee said in a statement Friday.
The award-making committee said the prize honoured all those behind recent unprecedented demonstrations in Iran and called for the release of Mohammadi who has campaigned for both women’s rights and the abolition of the death penalty.
“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, head of the committee.
“If the Iranian authorities make the right decision, they will release her so that she can be present to receive this honour [in December], which is what we primarily hope for.”
Mohammadi is currently serving multiple sentences in Tehran’s Evin Prison amounting to about 12 years imprisonment, according to the Front Line Defenders rights organisation, one of the many periods she has been detained behind bars. Charges include spreading propaganda against the state.
