The government of Iran responded to the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to the Iranian women’s rights activist Narges Mohammadi with sharp criticism. International politicians praised the commitment of the imprisoned 51-year-old.
The Iranian government has sharply criticized the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to human rights activist Narges Mohammadi. “We view and condemn this action as a partisan and politically motivated action,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani said in a written statement.
The award winner, who comes from Iran, is “a person who has been convicted of repeated violations of the law and criminal acts,” the statement continued. But the awarding of the award reflects the “anti-Iranian” policy of some European states, including Norway.
For decades Imprisonment for Mohammadi
The Norwegian Nobel Committee announced the decision for Mohammadi as the prize winner this morning. The 51-year-old imprisoned in Tehran will receive the prestigious award “for her fight against the oppression of women in Iran and her fight to promote human rights and freedom for all,” said the chairwoman of the committee, Berit Reiss-Andersen Announcement in Oslo said.
Mohammadi is one of the most well-known human rights activists in Iran and has been imprisoned several times. She is currently serving a long prison sentence in the notorious Evin Prison in Tehran. In late 2022, during the nationwide uprising against Iran’s power apparatus, Mohammadi brought to light a report that revealed alleged torture of numerous women in the maximum security prison.
“Your courageous fight comes at a tremendous personal cost,” committee chairwoman Reiss-Andersen said during the announcement. The regime arrested Mohammadi a total of 13 times, convicted her five times and punished her with a total of 31 years in prison and 154 lashes.
Continue the fight for “democracy, freedom and equality”.
The New York Times quoted this year’s winner as saying in a statement her determination to continue her fight for human rights. “I will never stop fighting for the realization of democracy, freedom and equality,” the statement said. However, it is unclear whether this came from Mohammadi herself or was published by her family.
“The Nobel Peace Prize will certainly make me more resilient, more determined, more hopeful and more enthusiastic on this path and will accelerate my pace,” the 51-year-old is quoted in the newspaper. She will continue to “fight against the repressive religious government’s relentless discrimination, tyranny and gender-based oppression until women are liberated.”
Second Iranian receives Nobel Peace Prize
Mohammadi has been campaigning for women’s rights in Iran for around three decades. She is the second Iranian woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize. In 2003, the lawyer Shirin Ebadi was honored with the award. By awarding the Nobel Peace Prize, the committee is also honoring hundreds of thousands of people in Iran who are committed to women’s rights.
Ebadi himself expressed the hope to the Reuters news agency that the awarding of the prize to Mohammadi would bring “democracy and equality” to Iranian women. The award will shed light on how the “rights of women in the Islamic Republic” are being violated, said Ebadi. At the same time, she doubted that reforms were possible under the current Iranian regime.
Congratulations and praise for the award
The awarding of the prize to Mohammadi was met with international recognition and praise. The election of the human rights activist is an important reminder that the rights of women and girls are being severely pushed back in Iran and elsewhere, said United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres. Liz Throssell, spokeswoman for the UN High Commission, made a similar statement. The French and US governments also recognized Mohammadi’s commitment. US President Joe Biden called for her immediate release from Iranian custody.
Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier emphasized that Mohammadi was a role model for many people – even beyond Iran. He admires Mohammadi’s courage, tenacity and resilience and hopes that “women and girls in your country will not only dream of equality and freedom, but will also experience it personally in the not too distant future, without having to risk their lives.”
“Representative for all brave women of Iran”
Congratulations also came from the federal government. “My respect goes to this year’s Nobel Peace Prize winner – for her courage and her fight for the rights of Iranian women,” wrote Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Platform X.
Federal Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock welcomed the Nobel Committee’s decision as an important signal in the fight against oppression. “If women are not safe, then no one is safe. This Nobel Peace Prize has underlined that this year, in an impressive way,” emphasized the Green politician. Mohammadi’s election for this year’s Nobel Peace Prize is an important contribution “for women, for youth, for the people of Iran, but also for all women worldwide.”
Three award winners last year
The Nobel Peace Prize is considered the world’s most important political prize. It is often awarded to a single person or organization, but the Nobel Committee can also award it to up to three laureates at the same time.
Last year, the prize went to the imprisoned Belarusian human rights lawyer Ales Bialyazki, the human rights organizations Memorial from Russia and the Center for Civil Liberties from Ukraine. They were honored, among other things, for their commitment to civil societies in their home countries, the right to criticize power and the protection of the basic rights of citizens.
259 personalities and 92 organizations were in the running this year. The total number of 351 nominees is the second highest to date. The Nobel institutions traditionally keep secret who is among the nominees.
Prize worth 950,000 euros
The Nobel Peace Prize is the only Nobel Prize that is not awarded in the Swedish capital Stockholm, but in the Norwegian capital Oslo. The prize winners in the categories of medicine, physics, chemistry and literature have been awarded in Stockholm since Monday. At the end of this year’s prize announcements, the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences will follow on Monday.
This year, all awards are worth eleven million Swedish crowns (around 950,000 euros), one million crowns more than in previous years. They are traditionally presented on December 10th, the anniversary of the death of the Swedish dynamite inventor and prize donor Alfred Nobel.