The Nobel Peace Prize was awarded on Friday October 6 in Oslo to Iranian activist Narges Mohammadi, who has been detained for a year in Tehran.

The 51-year-old activist and journalist is being recognized “for her fight against the oppression of women in Iran and her struggle to promote human rights and freedom for all,” said the chair of the Norwegian Nobel committee, Berit Reiss-Andersen .

“This truly highlights the courage and determination of women in Iran, who are an inspiration to the entire world,” said the spokesperson for the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Elizabeth Throssell, in Geneva, adding: “We have seen their courage and determination in the face of reprisals, intimidation, violence and detentions. »

The UN subsequently called for the release of Narges Mohammadi, and “that of all human rights defenders imprisoned in Iran”.

The journalist was sentenced in May 2016 to sixteen years in prison for her human rights activism, a sentence extended in August. She is vice-president of the Defenders of Human Rights Center, led by Nobel Peace Prize-winning lawyer Shirin Ebadi.

Protest movement

Narges Mohammadi is rewarded as Iran was hit last year by a vast protest movement triggered by the death of a 22-year-old Iranian Kurd, Mahsa Amini, after her arrest in Tehran for non-compliance with the strict code Islamic clothing.

Narges Mohammadi and three fellow inmates burned their veils in the courtyard of Tehran’s Evin prison to mark the anniversary of Mahsa Amini’s death on September 16. Iran ranks 143rd – out of 146 countries – in the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) gender equality rankings.

The “woman, life, freedom” uprising – a slogan with which the president of the Norwegian Nobel committee began her announcement on Friday – was violently repressed: 551 demonstrators, including 68 children and 49 women, were killed by the forces of security, according to the NGO Iran Human Rights (IHR), and thousands of others arrested.

If the protest is now more diffuse, it continues in different forms, posing to the Iranian authorities one of the greatest challenges since the 1979 revolution. Scenes still unimaginable a year ago, women are now coming out revealed in the public places, despite the risks involved. In September, the predominantly conservative Iranian Parliament toughened sanctions targeting women who refuse the veil.

“Opinion detainee”

“This year’s [Nobel] Peace Prize also recognizes the hundreds of thousands of people who, over the past year, have demonstrated against theocratic regimes’ policies of discrimination and oppression against women.” , said Ms. Reiss-Andersen.

Arrested again in 2021, Narges Mohammadi has not seen her children – who live in France with her husband – for eight years. Considered a “detainee of opinion” by Amnesty International, she said in her correspondence with Agence France-Presse that she had “almost no prospect of freedom”.

The awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize represents “a historic and important moment for the struggle for freedom in Iran,” his family reacted in a written message on Friday. “We dedicate this award to all Iranians and in particular to Iranian women and girls who have inspired the whole world with their courage and their fight for freedom and equality,” she added.