Narges Mohammadi: The 2023 Nobel Prize Winner
Iranian women's rights activist who's currently behind bars just won the Nobel Peace Prize for her unwavering work and adversity.
As of Friday, October 6th, a jailed Iranian women’s rights advocate, Marges Mohammadi, won the 2023 Nobel Peace Prize. The 51-year old has spent decades behind bars for her activism, yet still continues to carry her influence through the youth and women of Iran. She has been imprisoned thirteen times, and convicted another five times with a total of 31 years in prison by the Iranian Government. Narges is currently behind bars for participating in the recent protests of the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini. Mahsa Amini died in a hospital under mysterious circumstances after being detained by the police for not wearing the mandatory headscarf, which was made into law in 1979, when the Islamic Regime took over the nation of Iran. Mahsa Amini’s death attracted many protesters and others, spreading the news of her untimely and unjust death via the internet. The Mahsa Amini protests resulted in five hundred people killed and over 22,00 people detained as the Iranian government issued a crackdown on the protestors. Even in prison as well, she continues to make her voice heard. In 2019, she and another British-Iranian man announced plans to go on a hunger strike to protest against the denial of medical treatment in Iran’s most infamous prison, the Evin Prison, where Western diplomats, political figures, and where some of the worst criminals are kept.
Yet through the metal bars, Marges Mohammadi continued to fight for what she believed in, contributing an opinion piece for the New York Times saying, “What the government may not understand is that the more of us they lock up, the stronger we become.”
Ever since the Islamic Regime took power in 1979 in Iran, they have slowly but surely taken many women’s rights away, such as banning higher education for women, forbidding them to leave the house unless they are with another man, and have even banned them from driving cars. Narges Mohammadi strives to make her home country a better place not only for herself, but for the thousands of women who have watched their lives being stripped away from them.
Quoting the chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, Berit Reiss-Andersen, “This prize is first and foremost a recognition of the very important work of a whole movement in Iran with its undisputed leader, Narges Mohammadi.”
Through the many protests and revolts that she has organized, she never gives up. Her undying spirit to see her people free shines brightly in her heart, and she will continue to fight until every single woman gets their rights back.
Source: CNN
Sources:
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/16/world/middleeast/iran-death-woman-protests.html