Inmate activist Narges Mohammadi received the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for her work opposing women’s repression in Iran.
“This prize is first and foremost a recognition of the very important work of a whole movement in Iran with with its undisputed leader, Nargis Mohammadi,” said Berit Reiss-Andersen, the chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee who announced the prize in Oslo. “The impact of the prize is not for the Nobel committee to decide upon. We hope that it is an encouragement to continue the work in whichever form this movement finds to be fitting.”
After Mohammadi attended a memorial for a victim of tense 2019 protests, authorities detained her in November. According to Reiss-Andersen, Mohammadi has served 13 prison terms and received five convictions. She has received a total term of 31 years in jail.
She is the second Iranian woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize after human rights campaigner Shirin Ebadi did it in 2003. She is the 19th woman to do so.
Mohammadi served as vice president of the Iranian Defenders of Human Rights Center, which is now outlawed, before being imprisoned. Ebadi, who established the facility, was close to her.
The engineer Mohammadi received the 2018 Andrei Sakharov Prize.
The financial prize for the Nobel Prizes is 11 million Swedish kronor, or roughly $1 million. At the award ceremonies in December, winners also get a diploma and a medal made of 18-carat gold.
An international jury of judges in Norway selects the recipient of the renowned Nobel Peace Prize from among more than 350 nominees.
Human rights advocates from Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia took home the award the previous year, which was considered as a rebuke to Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Belarusian colleague and ally.
Nelson Mandela, Barack Obama, Mikhail Gorbachev, Aung San Suu Kyi, and the United Nations are some other past winners.
The peace prize is agreed upon and presented in Oslo by the five-member Norwegian Nobel Committee, in contrast to the other Nobel prizes, which are chosen and announced in Stockholm per Alfred Nobel’s directive. The Norwegian parliament appoints the impartial commission.
