Iranian Human Rights Advocate, Narges Mohammadi, Receives 2023 Nobel Peace Prize

Narges Mohammadi, one of Iran's most significant human rights activists, was awarded the 2023 Nobel Peace Prize while serving an accumulated 12-year sentence behind Tehran's Evin Prison bars. Her determined pursuit of women's rights and the abolition of the death penalty in Iran was praised by the Norwegian Nobel Committee.

In announcing the award, Berit Reiss-Andersen, the Committee's head, initiated her speech with the Farsi expression for "woman, life, freedom". These words encapsulated the peaceful protests against Iranian government suppression, to which Mohammadi had contributed with relentless courage.

The statement reads, "The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided to award the 2023 Nobel Peace Prize to Narges Mohammadi for her fight against the oppression of women in Iran and her fight to promote human rights and freedom for all."

Mohammadi, currently serving numerous sentences for charges including propagating state propaganda, has undergone several periods of detention. According to Front Line Defenders, a rights organisation, her total incarceration time amounts to approximately 12 years. She holds a senior position at the Defenders of Human Rights Center, a NGO led by the recipient of the 2003 Nobel Peace Prize, Shirin Ebadi.

This prestigious recognition makes Mohammadi the 19th female laureate in the 122-year history of the award. The last woman to share this honour was Maria Ressa from the Philippines in 2021, jointly with Russia's Dmitry Muratov. The prize awarded to Mohammadi entails a monetary component of 11 million Swedish crowns (roughly $1 million). The presentation will take place on December 10 in Oslo, commemorating the death anniversary of Alfred Nobel, the Swedish industrialist who initiated the awards in 1895.