It is significant that the Nobel Peace Prize has fallen to an Iranian woman although the lawyer Shirin Ebadi, head of the Center for the Defense of Human Rights in Tehran, was already awarded in 2003. The decision of the Norwegian Nobel Committee to award this year’s award to human rights activist Narges Mohammadi is consistent with the importance and international impact that the women’s struggle has achieved in that country. With its decision, the committee wanted to highlight the determination of Iranian women in their mobilization in favor of life and freedom, despite the repression suffered by the theocratic regime in Tehran.
Sentenced in a farce trial that only lasted a few minutes to a sentence of 18 years and eight months and to suffer 150 lashes for an alleged crime against national security, Narges Mohammadi is a symbol of the repression of the Iranian Government and the resilience of the women of their country in the face of it. Her sentence, handed down on the day of the activist’s death Mahsa Amini, arrested for not wearing the veil according to established standards, was produced for denouncing the torture and sexual violence that occurs in Iranian prisons against women, in the book ‘White Torture’. Mohammadi, 51, is detained in a prison, where she suffers from cardiovascular and neurological problems, and she did not want to appeal the sentence to highlight the arbitrariness of a regime that targets women with special virulence.
We understand that This Nobel Peace Prize is intended for the thousands of Iranian women compromised and retaliated against who staged massive demonstrations following Amini’s death. It constitutes a international condemnation and pressure on the ayatollah regime to release Mohammadi and other detained activists who could reach, according to some human rights organizations, 20,000.
In recent years, the Nobel Peace Prize has often had a universal value, as a reward for those who defend freedom from especially difficult situations, in Russia, China, Arab countries and elsewhere. In that sense, it is noteworthy that the president of the committee that grants it, Berit Reiss-Andersenhas warned that Democracy is in decline in several countries. Many others of the 351 candidates who had been nominated deserved to receive the award, as human rights activists, particularly some who fight for increasingly relevant climate rights.
The appointment of Narges Mohammadi also continues to compensate for the bias of a Nobel Peace Prize that has only gone to 19 women out of the 140 winners so far. This bias has begun to be corrected in the last 20 years and the Norwegian committee has undoubtedly been right in appointing a woman. It is most likely that the Tehran regime will not take notice (although the award may serve as a shield against new humiliations), but the distinction will constitute support for all those women who popularized the motto ‘Woman, life, freedom’ in many Iranian cities and who thereby managed to conquer important but fragile areas of freedom that require the attention and support of the international community.