Iranian activist Narges Mohammadi honored

This year the Nobel Peace Prize will be awarded to Narges Mohammadi. The human rights activist campaigns against the oppression of women in Iran.

The Nobel Peace Prize goes to Narges Mohammadi. This was announced by the Norwegian Nobel Committee in Oslo. The statement said that Mohammadi had been campaigning for women’s rights for years. She is being persecuted by the Iranian regime for this and is currently serving a long prison sentence in the notorious Ewin Prison in Tehran. She is accused of “propaganda against the state”.

Mohammadi is one of the most well-known human rights activists in Iran and has been imprisoned several times. The journalist played a central role in the fight for women’s rights and freedom of expression in her country. She has been imprisoned repeatedly since 1998 for this. At the end of 2022, during the nationwide uprising against Iran’s power apparatus, the now 51-year-old brought to light a report that revealed alleged torture of dozens of women in the maximum security prison.

The Nobel Committee expressed hope that Iran would release Mohammadi. The United Nations said that awarding the prize to the 51-year-old highlighted the courage of Iranian women.

“Mohammadi’s fearless voice cannot be locked away”

Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) expressed his respect for the courage and commitment of the award winner on the online service X (formerly Twitter). “My respect goes to this year’s Nobel Peace Prize winner – for her courage and her fight for the rights of Iranian women,” wrote Scholz.

The Nobel Committee’s decision shows the “power of women for freedom,” explained Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock (Greens), also on X. “Mohammadi’s fearless voice cannot be locked away, the future of Iran is its women,” Baerbock wrote.

Long list of suggestions

Given the ongoing tense world situation with the war in Ukraine, the climate crisis and other conflicts, there were enough candidates: 259 personalities and 92 organizations were in the running this year. The total number of 351 nominees is the second highest ever. The Nobel institutions traditionally keep secret who is among the nominees for 50 years.

The Nobel Peace Prize is considered the most important political prize in the world. It is often awarded to a single person or organization, but as in the previous year, the Nobel Committee can also award it to up to three laureates at the same time.

Last year, the prize went to the imprisoned Belarusian human rights lawyer Ales Byaljazki as well as the human rights organizations Memorial from Russia and Center for Civil Liberties from Ukraine. They were honored, among other things, for their commitment to civil societies in their home countries, the right to criticize power and the protection of the basic rights of citizens.

Only Nobel Prize in Oslo

The Nobel Peace Prize is the only Nobel Prize that is not awarded in the Swedish capital Stockholm, but in the Norwegian capital Oslo. The winners in the categories of medicine, physics, chemistry and literature had already been announced in Stockholm from Monday to Thursday. At the end of this year’s prize announcements, the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences will follow on Monday.

This year, all awards are worth eleven million Swedish crowns (around 950,000 euros), one million crowns more than in previous years. They are then traditionally presented on December 10th, the anniversary of the death of the Swedish dynamite inventor and prize donor Alfred Nobel (1833-1896).