Narges Mohammadi, an Iranian rights activist, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her decades of activism, but her battle has cost her her family for more than ten years and jeopardized her health.
After supporters warned that Mohammadi’s life was in jeopardy due to her deteriorating health, the 54-year-old was freed on bond from her most recent incarceration on Sunday and immediately sent to a hospital in Tehran.
The Norwegian committee’s 2023 award was a victory for Mohammadi, who had spent the majority of the previous 20 years in and out of prison while advocating for causes like Iran’s mandatory hijab for women and the abolition of the death penalty.
But, symbolically, she was not in Oslo to pick up the prize recognising her life’s work as she was again in prison. The award was received by her twin teenage children Ali and Kiana, now 19, accompanied by her husband Taghi Rahmani.
In giving the award to Mohammadi, the Nobel committee recognised that her “brave struggle has come with tremendous personal costs”.
Her children, who now live with their father in exile in Paris, have not seen their mother for over a decade and have often not been able to even speak to her while she has been in prison.
But they have been unstinting in their praise for her courage and choices.
“My mother paid a high price. She worked very hard and was away from us for a long time. But when she was with me and Kiana, she was a wonderful mother,” said Ali in a statement read at a news conference this month in Paris.
“If I have the chance to speak to my mother, it would be the same message as before. ‘My dear mother, know that you are not alone. The Iranian people are standing hand-in-hand.'”
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