The Canadian Press: Imprisoned Iranian activist Narges Mohammadi won the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday in recognition of her tireless campaigning for women’s rights and democracy, and against the death penalty.
Mohammadi, 51, has kept up her activism despite numerous arrests by Iranian authorities and spending years behind bars. She has remained a leading light for nationwide, women-led protests sparked by the death last year of a 22-year-old woman in police custody that have grown into one of the most intense challenges to Iran’s theocratic government.
“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," Reiss-Andersen the chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee said. She also urged Iran to release Mohammadi in time for the prize ceremony on Dec. 10.
"The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided to award the 2023 Nobel Peace Prize to Narges Mohammadi for her fight against the oppression of women in Iran and her fight to promote human rights and freedom for all," the committee said in its citation. Berit Reiss-Andersen, chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, announced the prize.
In a statement released after the Nobel announcement, Mohammadi said she will "never stop striving for the realization of democracy, freedom and equality.”
“Surely, the Nobel Peace Prize will make me more resilient, determined, hopeful and enthusiastic on this path, and it will accelerate my pace," she said in the statement, prepared in advance in case she was named the Nobel laureate.
She has been held at Tehran’s notorious Evin Prison, whose inmates include those with Western ties and political prisoners.
U.S. President Joe Biden and Amnesty International joined calls for Mohammadi’s immediate release.
“This award is a recognition that, even as she is currently and unjustly held in Evin Prison, the world still hears the clarion voice of Narges Mohammadi calling for freedom and equality,” Biden said in a statement. “I urge the government in Iran to immediately release her and her fellow gender equality advocates from captivity.”
Friday's prize sends "a clear message to the Iranian authorities that their crackdown on peaceful critics and human rights defenders will not go unchallenged,” Amnesty said.