Who Is Narges Mohammadi? The 2023 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate In Prison

In 2021, Iranian activist Narges Mohammadi was arrested. Less than two years later, while still in prison, Narges Mohammadi has now been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. So, who is she? And why is she being recognized with this prestigious award?

Narges Mohammadi was born in Zanjan, a northwestern Iranian city, in 1972. Seven years later, the Iranian Revolution would ignite an entirely new era in Iranian history and forever change the course of Mohammadi’s, and every other Iranian citizen’s, lives.

Originally, Mohammadi went to school in Qazvin, Iran, for physics, but she quickly became involved in activism at her university. After becoming an engineer, Mohammadi switched her path to journalism and has been an activist for 30 years. In those 30 years, she has been arrested 13 times, convicted 5 times, and been sentenced to a total of 31 years in prison and 154 lashes. She is currently serving a 12-year sentence in Tehran’s Evin prison.

Her activism started in local journalism, but she has since become the most notorious activist in the Iranian women’s fight for liberation. She is best known for her work with the Defenders of Human Rights Center, founded by fellow Nobel Peace Prize laureate Shirin Ebadi. Mohammadi’s activism focuses on civil disobedience and change through systemic education. Most of her arrests have been because of her assistance to incarcerated activists and their families.

Mohammadi’s targetting at the hands of the sexist Iranian government has left her alone in Iran. Her family, including her activist husband Taghi Rahmani, and her 16-year-old twin children, live in exile in Paris. Mohammadi hasn’t seen her husband in 11 years, and she hasn’t seen her children in seven. Ali Rahmani, their son, said that the Nobel Peace Prize wasn’t just for his mother, it was “for the struggle.”

Berit Reiss-Andersen, the chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee said that the prize was “first and foremost a recognition of the very important work of a whole movement in Iran,” when announcing the award on the 6th.

She and many other public political figures, including United States President Joe Biden, have urged Iran to release Mohammadi in time for the Nobel prize ceremony on December 10th. Mohammadi’s brother, Hamidreza Mohammadi, said that the award will not affect the situation in Iran.

“The regime will double down on the opposition,” he told The Associated Press on October 6th, “They will just crush people.” Mohammadi herself has been able to release a statement from prison regarding the Nobel. In a prewritten statement–because female prisoners in Evin

are not allowed to use the phone on Fridays, the day the prize was announced–she said she will “never stop striving for the realization of democracy, freedom and equality.”

“Surely, the Nobel Peace Prize will make me more resilient, determined, hopeful and enthusiastic on this path, and it will accelerate my pace,” she said. Mohammadi is not the first Nobel Peace Prize laureate to have been named while imprisoned—she is actually one in five. Last year, another imprisoned activist, Ales Bialiatski, was named. He is still in prison.

Mohammadi is incredibly deserving of this award, and many more. After facing arrest after arrest, Mohammadi has stood her ground and stayed in Iran to fight for her fellow women. Even while in prison, Mohammadi has continued to speak out against Iran’s abuse, even contributing to a New York Times article from behind bars in September. Mohammadi has spent her life putting herself on the front lines of a dangerous fight for women’s liberation. She has landed herself in prison, and has been a victim to violence at the hands of a repressive regime. And time and time again, she had displayed herself as a tireless advocate for justice

and a fighter for women everywhere. She is a prominent leader in an endless fight for women’s equality whose legacy had been set in stone years ago, and she has finally been recognized by the Western media as the hero she is.