Iran's human rights activist Nagres Mohammadi, who is currently imprisoned, has won this year's Nobel Peace Prize for her fight against the oppression of women in the country.
In an announcement by the award-giving body Friday (October 6), she was described as a "freedom fighter" for her continued struggle for a more equitable society for Iranian women. She has also publicized abuses inside prison since her latest incarceration.
The Nobel Committee added that Mohammadi fought for women against systemic discrimination and oppression.
It is expected that the Iranian regime would not welcome the international recognition Mohammadi received.
Mohammadi is the 19th individual woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize and the 64th individual female overall since the Nobel Prize was awarded to women. Earlier this week, Katalin Kariko and Anne L'Huillier were announced as this year's Nobel laureates for medicine and physics, respectively.
I welcome the Nobel Committee's decision to award the Nobel Peace Prize to Narges Mohammadi for her fight against the oppression of women in Iran. We live in a very interconnected world. Right now, people in Iran are fighting for freedom. Our future depends on their success. 1/2 pic.twitter.com/uyseeKUhm6
— Oleksandra Matviichuk (@avalaina) October 6, 2023
The Family that Upholds Human Rights Together
Nagres Mohammadi, 51, is the vice president of the Defenders of Human Rights Center in Iran, founded by fellow Nobel laureate Shirin Ebadi, the BBC reported.
In total, she has been arrested 13 times, convicted in five instances, and sentenced to a total of 31 years in prison, currently serving her sentence for "spreading propaganda."
Last year, in a letter from Evin Prison in Tehran, she detailed how women detained in the anti-government protests that were then sweeping the country were being sexually and physically abused.
The protests were triggered by the death in custody in September 2022 of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, arrested for allegedly violating strict dress codes.
She is married to fellow activist Taghi Rahmani, who also experienced imprisonment by the deeply theocratic Iranian regime. He is living in exile in France with their twin 16-year-old daughters.
Ukrainian human rights lawyer Oleksandra Matviichuk of the Center for Civil Liberties, which is last year's Nobel Peace Prize winner, congratulated Mohammadi for her "fight against the oppression of women in Iran."
"We live in a very interconnected world. Right now, people in Iran are fighting for freedom. Our future depends on their success," she said.
