OSLO: The Nobel Peace Prize was awarded on Friday to imprisoned activist Narges Mohammadi for her fight against the oppression of women in Iran. Mohammadi's award comes after a wave of protests swept Iran following the death in custody a year ago of a young Iranian Kurd, Mahsa Amini, arrested for violating Iran's strict dress rules for women. A 51-year-old journalist and activist, Mohammadi has spent much of the past two decades in and out of jail for her campaign against the mandatory hijab for women and the death penalty.

Speaking to AFP, the head of the Norwegian Nobel Committee urged Iran to release Mohammadi, a call echoed by the United Nations and US President Joe Biden. "I appeal to Iran: Do something dignified and release the Nobel laureate Narges Mohammadi," committee chairwoman Berit Reiss-Andersen said. Biden hailed her "unshakable courage", saying: "I urge the government in Iran to immediately release her and her fellow gender equality advocates from captivity." "This award is a recognition that ... the world still hears the clarion voice of Narges Mohammadi calling for freedom and equality," he added.

Tehran's foreign ministry condemned the award as "biased and political" noting that the Peace Prize had been "awarded to a person who was convicted of repeated violations of laws and criminal acts." Mohammadi and three other women held with her at Tehran's Evin prison burned their hijabs to mark the anniversary of Amini's death on September 16. The protests had "accelerated the process of realizing democracy, freedom and equality in Iran", a process that is now "irreversible", she told AFP last month in a letter written from her prison cell.

A handout photo provided by the Narges Mohammadi Foundation on Oct 2, 2023 shows an undated, unlocated photo of Iranian rights campaigner Narges Mohammadi.

Crackdown

Mohammadi was honored "for her fight against the oppression of women in Iran and her fight to promote human rights and freedom for all," Reiss-Andersen said. "Her brave struggle has come with tremendous personal costs. Altogether, the regime has arrested her 13 times, convicted her five times and sentenced her to a total of 31 years in prison and 154 lashes," she added. Incarcerated this time since November 2021, Mohammadi has not seen her children, who live in France with her husband, for eight years. "I am very, very proud of my mother, very happy", said her 17-year-old son, Ali Rahmani, at a Paris news conference also attended by his father and twin sister.

"The government is trying to break the prisoners in Iran," he said. "This prize is an award for her struggle in Iran." Mohammadi's husband, Taghi Rahmani, said the prize was also "an award for all the men and the women who fight for Woman, Life, Freedom" — a reference to a rallying cry prominent during protests in Iran over Amini's death. "Their voices will never be silenced," he added. The Nobel award "will give them even more strength to express themselves." Mohammadi is the vice-president of the Defenders of Human Rights Centre founded by Iranian human rights lawyer Shirin Ebadi, who herself won the Peace Prize in 2003.

Iran is ranked 143rd out of 146 countries on the World Economic Forum's gender equality ranking. Authorities cracked down harshly on last year's "Woman, Life, Freedom" uprising — the words Reiss-Andersen used to begin Friday's announcement, in English and Farsi: "Zan, Zendegi, Azadi". A total of 551 protesters, including 68 children and 49 women, were killed by security forces, according to Iran Human Rights, and thousands of others were arrested. "This award is a slap in the face of (Iranian supreme leader) Ali Khamenei's regime, which has declared war on its own people," Masih Alinejad, another Iranian hijab opponent, said on Friday.

The uprising, one of the biggest challenges to the regime's power since the 1979 revolution, has continued, albeit in other forms. In what would have been unthinkable a year ago, women now go out in public without the headscarf, in particular in Tehran and other big cities, despite the risks. A 16-year-old girl is currently in a coma after being attacked on Sunday by female police officers tasked with enforcing the mandatory hijab among other things, according to the Kurdish-focused rights group Hengaw. Authorities have stepped up controls, including using surveillance cameras, and have arrested actresses who post pictures of themselves on social media without the hijab. In September, Iran's conservative-dominated parliament announced heavier penalties for women who refuse to wear it. —AFP