Iranian Activist Narges Mohammadi Wins Nobel Peace Prize 2023

Narges Mohammadi, a 51-year-old Iranian human rights activist, has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize 2023 on October 6, honouring her heroic battle for women's rights in Iran as well as her support for human rights and freedom. Following Shirin Ebadi's triumph in 2003, this is the second time an Iranian woman has earned the Nobel Peace Prize.

Narges’ advocacy has garnered her global renown although she is currently serving a 10-year, 9-month term in Tehran's Evin Prison on accusations including propagating propaganda against the state. The prize was announced by Berit Reiss-Andersen, Chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee 2023.

The Nobel Peace Prize 2023 comes with a diploma, a gold medal, and a monetary prize of SEK 11 million (about USD 993,000).

Narges, a physicist and engineer from Zanjan, Iran, has spent three decades fighting for women's rights and opposing the death penalty in her homeland. She is the deputy director of the Defenders of Human Rights Center (DHRC) and has been subjected to 13 arrests, five convictions, and a total jail term of 31 years, as well as 154 lashes by the Iranian dictatorship. She wrote 'White Torture: Inside Iran's Women's Prisons,' which was released in 2022.

The Nobel Peace Prize 2023 recognizes not just Narges’ efforts, but also the broader protests in Iran against discriminatory legislation affecting women.

The Nobel Peace Prize was given jointly in 2022 to Belarusian campaigner Ales Bialiatski, the Russian group Memorial, and the Ukrainian organization Centre for Civil Liberties.

Since 1901, the Nobel Peace Prize has been presented 104 times to 141 laureates by the Nobel Foundation. Malala Yousafzai (2014) is the youngest laureate, and Joseph Rotblat (1995) is the oldest. Nineteen of the 111 individual winners are women, with Bertha von Suttner being the first in 1905.