There was no immediate official reaction from Tehran, which calls the protests Western-led subversion
\nOSLO
\nIran\u2019s imprisoned women\u2019s rights advocate Narges Mohammadi won the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday in a rebuke to Tehran\u2019s theocratic leaders and boost for anti-government protesters.
\nThe award-making committee said the prize honoured those behind recent unprecedented demonstrations in Iran and called for the release of Mohammadi, 51, who has campaigned for three decades for women\u2019s rights and abolition of the death penalty.
\n\u201cWe hope to send the message to women all around the world that are living in conditions where they are systematically discriminated: \u2018have the courage, keep on going\u2019,\u201d Berit Reiss-Andersen, head of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, told Reuters.
\n\u201cWe want to give the prize to encourage Narges Mohammadi and the hundreds of thousands of people who have been crying for exactly \u2018Woman, Life, Freedom\u2019 in Iran,\u201d she added, referring to the protest movement\u2019s main slogan.
\nThere was no immediate official reaction from Tehran, which calls the protests Western-led subversion.
\nBut semi-official news agency Fars said Mohammadi had \u201creceived her prize from the Westerners\u201d after making headlines \u201cdue to her acts against the national security.\u201d
\nMohammadi is serving multiple sentences in Tehran\u2019s Evin Prison amounting to about 12 years imprisonment, one of the many periods she has been detained behind bars, according to the Front Line Defenders rights organisation.
\nShe is the deputy head of the Defenders of Human Rights Center, a non-governmental organisation led by Shirin Ebadi, the 2003 Nobel Peace Prize laureate.
\n\u2018Embolden Narges\u2019 fight\u2019
\nMohammadi is the 19th woman to win the 122-year-old prize and the first one since Maria Ressa of the Philippines won the award in 2021 jointly with Russia\u2019s Dmitry Muratov.
\n\u201cThis Nobel Prize will embolden Narges\u2019 fight for human rights, but more importantly, this is in fact a prize for the \u2018women, life and freedom\u2019 movement,\u201d Mohammadi\u2019s husband Taghi Rahmani told Reuters at his home in Paris, applauding as he watched the announcement on TV.
\nArrested more than a dozen times in her life, and held three times in Evin prison since 2012, Mohammadi has been unable to see her husband for 15 years and her children for seven.
\nHer prize, worth 11 million Swedish crowns, or around $1 million, will be presented in Oslo on Dec. 10, the anniversary of the death of Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel, who founded the awards in his 1895 will.
\nPast winners range from Martin Luther King to Nelson Mandela.
\nMohammadi was quoted by the New York Times as saying she would never stop striving for democracy and equality, even if that meant staying in prison.
\n\u201cI will continue to fight against the relentless discrimination, tyranny and gender-based oppression by the oppressive religious government until the liberation of women,\u201d the newspaper quoted her as saying in a statement.
\nHer award came as rights groups say that an Iranian teenage girl was hospitalised in a coma after a confrontation on the Tehran metro for not wearing a hijab.
\nIranian authorities deny the reports.
\nGlobal tributes
\nMohammadi\u2019s win also came just over a year after the death of Mahsa Amini in the custody of morality police for allegedly flouting the Islamic Republic\u2019s dress code for women.
\nThat provoked nationwide protests, the biggest challenge to Iran\u2019s government in years, and was met with a deadly crackdown costing several hundred lives.
\nAmong a stream of tributes from major global bodies, the U.N. human rights office said the Nobel award highlighted the bravery of Iranian women. \u201cWe\u2019ve seen their courage and determination in the face of reprisals, intimidation, violence and detention,\u201d said its spokesperson Elizabeth Throssell\u202f.
\n\u201cThey\u2019ve been harassed for what they do or don\u2019t wear. There are increasingly stringent legal, social and economic measures against them … they are an inspiration to the world.\u201d
\nMohammadi\u2019s brother said the prize was overwhelming and he hoped it would make Iranian campaigners safer. \u201cThe situation there is very dangerous, activists there can lose their lives,\u201d Hamidreza Mohammed told Norwegian public broadcaster NRK in Oslo.
\nDan Smith, head of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute think tank, said that while the prize could help ease pressure on Iranian dissidents, it would be unlikely to lead to her release.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
There was no immediate official reaction from Tehran, which calls the protests Western-led subversion OSLO Iran\u2019s imprisoned women\u2019s rights advocate Narges Mohammadi won the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday in a rebuke to Tehran\u2019s theocratic leaders and boost for anti-government protesters. The award-making committee said the prize honoured those behind recent unprecedented demonstrations in Iran […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":360190,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-360177","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n