Nobel Committee calls on Iran to free imprisoned Peace Prize winner Narges Mohammadi
Mohammadi, 53, who has been imprisoned repeatedly in her three-decade campaign for women’s rights, was last week sentenced to a new prison term of 7-1/2 years, a group supporting her said on Sunday.
The Norwegian Nobel Committee said on Wednesday that it had called on Iran to immediately free activist and Nobel Peace Prize winner Narges Mohammadi from prison.
Mohammadi, 53, who has been imprisoned repeatedly in her three-decade campaign for women’s rights, was last week sentenced to a new prison term of 7-1/2 years, a group supporting her said on Sunday.
She was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2023 while in prison for her campaign to advance women’s rights and abolish the death penalty in the Islamic Republic.
Citing “reliable and well‑documented sources inside Iran,” the committee said Mohammadi was violently apprehended in December while attending the funeral of a human-rights lawyer and was subject to physical abuse and ongoing life‑threatening mistreatment.
Ali and Kiana Rahmani, children of Narges Mohammadi, an imprisoned Iranian human rights activist, hold the Nobel Peace Prize 2023 award, accepting it on behalf of their mother at Oslo City Hall, Norway December 10, 2023. (credit: NTB/Fredrik Varfjell via REUTERS)
An Iranian prosecutor at the time of the arrest told reporters that Mohammadi made provocative remarks at the memorial ceremony in the northeastern city of Mashhad and encouraged those present “to chant norm‑breaking slogans” and “disturb the peace.”
Mohammadi subjected to cruel, inhumane punishment
The Nobel Committee, in a statement on Wednesday, said the laureate was subject to cruel, inhuman, and degrading punishment in violation of international human rights law.
“Mohammadi’s ordeal is yet another grim example of the brutal repression that has followed the mass protests in Iran, where countless women and men have risked their lives to demand freedom, equality and basic human rights,” it said.
