THE JHARKHAND STORY DESK
New Delhi, Oct 6: The 2023 Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded to imprisoned Iranian human rights activist Narges Mohammadi for her “fight against the oppression of women” and “promoting human rights and freedom for all.”
As per the Nobel Prize Committee, Narges Mohammadi’s efforts have incurred significant personal costs.
She has been “arrested 13 times, convicted five times, and sentenced to a total of 31 years in prison and 154 lashes”.
According to the rights group Front Line Defenders and the news agency Reuters, the Iranian human rights campaigner is incarcerated in Tehran’s Evin Prison serving multiple sentences.
Narges Mohammadi is also accused of “spreading propaganda” against the Iranian government.
According to Reuters, she serves as the deputy director of the Defenders of Human Rights Centre, a non-governmental organization run by Shirin Ebadi, the 2003 recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize.
As a physics student in the 1990s, Narges Mohammadi started speaking up for gender equality and women’s rights. The Nobel committee stated she has constantly opposed “systematic oppression and discrimination.”
She has backed the “struggle for the right to live full and dignified lives,” a cause that frequently results in “persecution, imprisonment, torture, and even death” in Iran.
According to the committee, she also advocates for “freedom of expression and the right of independence” by opposing laws that restrict women’s liberties.
In the wake of the death of Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini last year, Narges Mohammadi organized solidarity actions from inside Tehran’s Evin Prison and supported to the demonstrators.
Her article was published by The New York Times on the anniversary of Mahsa Amini’s death, demonstrating that she was able to communicate with the outside world despite being imprisoned in harsh conditions. The title of her article in The New York Times was, “The more of us they lock up, the stronger we become.”
