International Human Rights Day: Iranian Dissident and Women’s Rights Activist Wins Nobel Peace Prize
On Sunday, the teenage children of jailed Iranian activist Narges Mohammadi accepted the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo. They attended the ceremony and spoke on behalf of their mother, whom the Iranian government currently imprisons due to her political and social activism.
The Nobel Committee selected Mohammadi for the prestigious award because of her work “fighting against the oppression of women in Iran and her fight to promote human rights and freedom for all.”
During the ceremony, Mohammadi’s twin children, 17-year-olds Kiana and Ali, delivered a lecture she wrote from her prison cell in Tehran’s Evin prison.
The 51-year-old activist is currently serving a 31-year sentence for “spreading false propaganda” about the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Mohammadi’s speech centers on her resolve that the Iranian people will “dismantle” the Islamic Republic’s regime. She assures those listening that the anti-regime fervor that enveloped Iranian society last year, embodied by the “Women, Life, Freedom” protests, was just the beginning of a “movement for fundamental change.”
Mohammadi refers to herself as one of the “millions of proud and resilient Iranian women who have risen up against oppression, repression, discrimination, and tyranny.” She criticizes the greater international community for failing to support the people of Iran, calling on Western nations not to “postpone democracy” in her country.
“Resistance is alive, and the struggle endures,” Mohammadi ensures, insisting in the final line of her lecture that “the light of freedom and justice will shine brightly on the land of Iran.”
Although Mohammadi’s final words of hope, delivered by her son, Ali, brought the audience to a standing ovation, her daughter, Kiana, doesn’t foresee her or her brother ever seeing their mother again due to her continued public criticism of the regime.
“She will always be in my heart, and I accept that because the struggle, the movement, Woman Life Freedom, is worth it. Freedom and democracy are priceless. It’s all worth the sacrifice,” Kiana told CNN in a pre-speech interview.
On December 10, 2023, the world celebrated Human Rights Day, marking the 75th Anniversary of the original adoption of the landmark Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The first of its kind, this document codified into international law the principle that all people, regardless of race, color, religion, sex, language, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth, or other status, are endowed with certain unalienable rights.
