The Nobel Peace Prize 2023 has been awarded to imprisoned activist Narges Mohammadi for fighting against the oppression of women in Iran and promoting human rights and freedom for all.
"This prize is first and foremost a recognition of the very important work of a whole movement in Iran with its undisputed leader, Nargis Mohammadi,” said Berit Reiss-Andersen, the chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee who announced the prize in Oslo.
Who is Narges Mohammadi?
Mohammadi was arrested in November last year after she attended a memorial for a victim of violent protests in 2019. According to Reiss-Andersen, she has been imprisoned 13 times and convicted five times. She is now serving a sentence of 31 years in prison.
The Norwegian Nobel Committee says it hopes Iran will release Narges Mohammadi from jail so she can attend the prize ceremony in December, BBC reported. The Nobel Committee said Mohammadi's "brave struggle has come with a tremendous personal cost".
With Friday's announcement, Mohammadi has become the second Iranian woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize after human rights activist Shirin Ebadi in 2003 and the 19th woman overall.
She spent her time behind bars during the widespread protests in the wake of the 22-year-old Mahsa Amini's death at the hands of Iran's morality police. More than 500 people were killed in a heavy security crackdown while over 22,000 others were arrested.
"What the government may not understand is that the more of us they lock up, the stronger we become," she wrote in an op-ed from behind bars. There is no official reaction from Iranian state-controlled media.
The 51-year-old Mohammadi was vice president of the banned Defenders of Human Rights Center in Iran, founded by Ebadi. She also won the 2018 Andrei Sakharov Prize. She was chosen as a recipient of the prestigious prize by a panel of experts in Norway from a list of just over 350 nominations.
The Nobel Prizes carry a cash award of 11 million Swedish kronor (about $1 million). Winners also receive an 18-carat gold medal and diploma at the award ceremonies in December.
Last year’s Nobel Peace Prize was won by human rights activists from Ukraine, Belarus and Russia, in what was seen as a strong rebuke to Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Belarusian counterpart and ally.
On Thursday, Norwegian author Jon Fosse was awarded The 2023 Nobel Prize in Literature “for his innovative plays and prose which give voice to the unsayable.” Scientists Moungi Bawendi, Louis Brus and Alexei Ekimov won the 2023 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for "the discovery and synthesis of quantum dots".
(with AP inputs)
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