This year’s Nobel Peace Prize goes to Iranian civil rights activist Narges Mohammadi. With the prize, the Nobel Committee wants to “honor her brave fight for freedom and democracy in Iran.” Mohammadi is currently in prison in the Iranian capital Tehran.
Committee chairman Berit Reiss-Andersen started the ceremony with the words “zan, zendegi, azadi” – woman, life, freedom, the slogan of the Iranian protests that broke out a year ago after the death of Mahsa Amini. According to Reiss-Andersen, those three words also summarize “the dedication and work of Narges Mohammadi.”
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It is the 104th time that the Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded. Last year, three Eastern European human rights advocates received the peace prize: the Belarusian human rights activist Ales Byalyatsky, the Russian human rights organization Memorial and the Ukrainian human rights organization Center for Civil Liberties.
Of the five prizes awarded annually based on the wishes of the Swede Alfred Nobel, the Peace Prize is by far the most politically charged. Nobel himself was not entirely without controversy: he was the inventor of dynamite and owed part of the wealth he left behind to the production of ammunition. At his death, Nobel decreed that the money should go annually to those who “have provided the greatest benefit to humanity.” This year the winner will receive 11 million Swedish crowns (947 thousand euros).
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