This year’s Nobel Peace Prize goes to the Iranian women’s rights activist and human rights activist Narges Mohammadi. This was announced by the Nobel Committee in Oslo. Her “fight against the oppression of women in Iran and her fight to promote human rights and freedom for all” will be honored, said the chairwoman of the committee, Berit Reiss-Andersen.
Mohammadi is a member of the Iranian Center for the Defense of Human Rights. “Their courageous fight comes at a tremendous personal cost,” Reiss-Andersen said. The Iranian regime has arrested her a total of 13 times in the past quarter century, convicted her five times and punished her with a total of 31 years in prison and 154 lashes. Mohammadi is currently serving a sentence in Tehran’s notorious Ewin Prison. At the end of 2022, during the nationwide uprisings against the local power apparatus, she revealed in a report alleged torture of dozens of women in the high-security prison.
The 51-year-old is the second Iranian woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize after lawyer Shirin Ebadi. With Mohammadi, the Nobel Committee is honoring hundreds of thousands of people in Iran who stood up for women’s rights, said Nobel Committee Chairwoman Reiss-Andersen.
Narges Mohammadi (right) in conversation with the human rights activist Shirin Ebadi, who was also awarded the Nobel Prize in 2003 – at a meeting in January 2005.
(Photo: Vahid Salemi/AP)
The honorees traditionally receive their prestigious medal on December 10th, the anniversary of the death of the dynamite inventor and prize donor Alfred Nobel (1833-1896). Reiss-Andersen said she hopes the Iranian government makes the “right decision” and releases Mohammadi so she can accept the award in person.
The award is considered the most important political prize in the world. 351 candidates were nominated, including 259 people and 92 organizations. There were only more nominations in 2016, when there were 376. The selection of the Nobel Peace Prize winners also depends on how the term peace is interpreted. Some people argue that the aim should be to bring peace and that the prize should therefore go to people who have ended wars. However, this would exclude the fight for human rights, the environment and nuclear disarmament – all topics for which the prize has already been awarded in the past.
These are the Nobel Peace Prize winners of recent years:
Ales Bialyazki is co-founder of the NGO Vyasna, which keeps records of the actions of the Belarusian authorities against democracy activists.
(Photo: Sergei Grits/AP)
In 2022, experts also saw the award for the imprisoned Belarusian human rights lawyer Ales Bialyazki, the human rights organization Memorial from Russia and the Center for Civil Liberties as a signal to Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin, the Belarusian ruler Alexander Lukashenko and other autocrats.
The Filipino Maria Ressa and the Russian Dmitri Muratov at the Nobel Peace Prize award ceremony.
(Photo: Alexander Zemlianichenko/dpa)
Journalists Maria Ressa and Dmitry Muratov were honored in 2021 for their efforts to defend freedom of expression in the Philippines and Russia. As head of the online news agency Rappler, Ressa has been denouncing the brutal methods of Philippine ruler Rodrigo Duterte for years. Muratov was editor-in-chief of the dissident Russian newspaper for a long time Novaya Gazeta.
According to its own statements, the United Nations World Food Program is “the leading humanitarian organization in the fight against global hunger.”
(Photo: European Pressphoto Agency/dpa)
The United Nations World Food Program was recognized in 2020 for its efforts to combat hunger and improve peace conditions in conflict areas.
Abiy Ahmed was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2019. Today this decision is viewed critically.
(Photo: Tiksa Negeri/Reuters)
Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed received the award in 2019 for his efforts for peace and international cooperation and, above all, for his initiative to resolve the border conflict with neighboring Eritrea. However, the award also shows the problem when active politicians are awarded. In the years following the honor, the country sank back into civil war and Abiy did little to de-escalate the situation.