By Pishtaz and AFP | 2023-10-10

As many in the world applauded the Nobel Committee's decision to award this year's Peace Prize to prominent imprisoned rights activist Narges Mohammadi, Tehran called the award "biased and political."

Mohammadi is the second Iranian to win the Nobel Peace Prize after human rights activist Shirin Ebadi won the award in 2003.

Mohammadi is the vice-president of the Defenders of Human Rights Center founded by Ebadi, who was the first Iranian Nobel laureate.

Currently incarcerated, Mohammadi is a longtime civil and human rights activist who has spent years in Iran's prisons, including in Zanjan and the notorious Evin prison in Tehran, where she is currently imprisoned.

Iran's foreign ministry said the Peace Prize had been "awarded to a person who was convicted of repeated violations of laws and criminal acts."

Foreign ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani lambasted the Nobel Committee for making "false claims," which he said was "indicative of the approach of some European governments to falsify information and produce confusing and deviant narratives about internal developments in Iran."

First arrested 22 years ago, Mohammadi, now 51, has spent much of the past two decades in and out of jail over her unstinting activism for human rights in Iran. She has most recently been incarcerated since November 2021.

She recently responded in writing to the questions of an interview and managed to sneak her answers out of prison.

She said the protests that broke out following the death of Mahsa Amini in custody of the regime's "morality police" last year made the levels of dissatisfaction in Iran's society clear.

"After 44 years of oppression, discrimination and continuous repression of the government against women in public and personal life," the protests "accelerated the process of realizing democracy, freedom and equality in Iran," she added.

Reactions to Mohammadi's prize

Nobel Committee chairwoman Berit Reiss-Andersen urged Iran to release Mohammadi, a call echoed by the United Nations (UN) and US President Joe Biden.

"I appeal to Iran: Do something dignified and release the Nobel laureate Narges Mohammadi," 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 told AFP.

President Biden hailed Mohammadi's "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.

Mohammadi's husband, Taghi Rahmani, who resides in France, said the prize was also "an award for all the men and the women who fight for Women, Life, Freedom" -- a reference to the anti-establishment movement in Iran which began with last year's protests.

"Their voices will never be silenced," he added. The Nobel award "will give them even more strength to express themselves."

Iran is ranked 143rd out of 146 countries on the World Economic Forum's gender equality ranking.

However, 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.

Mohammadi and three other women held with her at Tehran's Evin prison burned their headscarves to mark the anniversary of Amini's death on September 16.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres said the Nobel Peace Prize awarded to Mohammadi was "a tribute to all those women who are fighting for their rights at the risk of their freedom, their health and even their lives."

The choice of recipient was "an important reminder that the rights of women and girls are facing a strong pushback, including through the persecution of women human rights defenders, in Iran and elsewhere," he said in a statement.

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said, "Mohammadi's Nobel win shows women's power in Iran."

It "shows women's power for freedom," she said in a post on the social media platform X (formerly Twitter), adding that Mohammadi's "fearless voice cannot be locked up; the future of Iran is its women."

Russia, Iran's ally, has declined to comment on the news.

In September, the Nobel Foundation withdrew its invitation for representatives of Russia, Belarus and Iran to attend this year's Nobel Prize award ceremonies.