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Iranian human rights activist Narges Mohammadi has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize 2023 for her fight against the oppression of women in Iran. She became the 19th woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize and the second Iranian woman to win the award after human rights activist Shirin Ebadi in 2003.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee awarded her peace prize “for her fight against the oppression of women in Iran and her fight to promote human rights and freedom for all.”

Mohammadi was chosen as a winner by a panel of experts in Norway from a list of 351 candidates, including 259 individuals and 92 organisations.

The Committee also referred to last year’s protests which erupted in Iran against the killing of a young woman, Mahsa Amini while she was in the custody of Iran's morality police.

It mentioned that the protests’ motto, ‘Zan – Zendegi – Azadi (Woman – Life – Freedom)’, “suitably expresses the dedication and work of Narges Mohammadi.”

Who Is Narges Mohammadi?

51-year-old Narges Mohammadi is the deputy director of the Defenders of Human Rights Center, which was founded by fellow Nobel laureate Shirin Ebadi and is currently imprisoned in Tehran's Evin Prison.

She is facing charges of “spreading anti-state propaganda” and defamation. She was arrested in November last year after she attended a memorial for Mahsa Amini, whose death in police custody had sparked massive outrage and massive demonstrations against Iran’s regime in 2022.

Narges Mohammadi has been imprisoned 13 times and convicted five times. She was sentenced to 31 years in jail in total, as reported by the Associated Press.

She was reportedly arrested for the first time in 2011 and sentenced to several years of imprisonment for her efforts to help incarcerated activists and their families.

Mohammadi has been protesting against four decades of Iran’s mandatory hijab rule.

Life And Career Of Narges Mohammadi

Narges Mohammadi was born in 1972 in Zanjan, in the northwest of Iran. She also holds a degree in physics and started her career as an engineer. During her academic years, she became an advocate for equality and women’s rights and started writing for the student newspaper.

She also worked as a journalist for several reformist publications and also advocated for the abolition of the death penalty, the right to protest, and women’s rights.

Mohammadi is married to Taghi Rahmani, who has been a refugee in France since 2012, with their two children, twins now aged 17.

Previous Awards

Mohammadi has reportedly received various awards including the Alexander Langer Award in 2009, UNESCO/Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize, and also the prestigious Olof Palme Prize earlier in 2023.

About the Nobel Peace Prize

Unlike the other Nobel prizes, the Peace Prize is decided and presented in Oslo by the five-member Norwegian Nobel Committee.

The Peace Prize can be awarded to individuals and organisations. Last year, the 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.

Other prominent winners of the prize include Nelson Mandela, Barack Obama, Aung San Suu Kyi, Mikhail Gorbachev, and the United Nations.

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