Narges Mohammadi’s Nobel Peace Prize Returns the World’s Focus on Iran
Shaghayegh Hanson
There is an interesting story about the founder of the Nobel Peace Prize, Alfred Nobel, that I was unaware of until recently. Apparently, after Alfred’s brother died in 1888, a French newspaper—mistakenly believing that it was Alfred who had died—published a scathing obituary that described Alfred as a “merchant of death” for his invention of dynamite and its use in military warfare. This is said to have played a major role in Nobel’s decision to leave a better legacy by rewriting his will and bequeathing most of his immense fortune for the establishment of the Nobel prizes. Because historians have never been able to verify this story, some refer to it as a myth. It is true that Nobel invented dynamite, among many other things (he was really clever), and if the obituary story is also true as to his motivation for creating the Nobel prizes, he was a master at rebranding his image.
But I digress, because the true protagonists in the Nobel story are the recipients of the prizes. You will know by now that the continued suppression of human rights in Iran has produced yet another female Iranian Nobel Peace Prize laureate: Narges Mohammadi. She was awarded the prize “for her fight against the oppression of women in Iran and her fight to promote human rights and freedom for all.” She follows in the footsteps of Shirin Ebadi, who won it in 2003. In that same year, Mohammadi joined the Defenders of Human Rights Center in Iran, which was founded by Ebadi. The prize is not just a recognition of an insanely brave woman, but of an entire movement, as signaled by the prize announcement’s opening words, “Zan—Zendegi—Azadi”/“Woman—Life—Freedom,” the motto that has been adopted by demonstrators since the death of Mahsa Amini in September 2022 while in the custody of the morality police for exposing too much hair outside of her headscarf.1 Last month, on the anniversary of Mahsa’s death, another young woman was left in a coma after running into the authorities for the same “offense.”2
As much as the passion for freedom burns in all of us, there are very few people who would sacrifice themselves for the cause to the extent Mohammadi has done. In the face of repeated arrests, multiple convictions, and imprisonment and re-imprisonment in the bilious guts of the notorious Evin prison, she has said she will not run away from Iran “even if I spend the rest of my life in prison,” but will continue to “stand alongside the brave mothers of Iran, I will continue to fight against the relentless discrimination, tyranny, and gender-based oppression by the oppressive religious government until the liberation of women.”3 Just last month, Mohammadi released an essay from prison, entitled, “The More They Lock Us Up, The Stronger We Become.”4 She is currently serving a sentence of 10 years,2 and has not seen her children—17-year-old twins living in refuge with their father in France—for eight years.5
When we witness brave and courageous acts, I think we all wonder if, and hope that, we would have acted in the same way, that we would have risen to the occasion under the same circumstances just as the hero of the story did. Narges Mohammadi, and all the other freedom fighters in Iran, inspire such thoughts in me as an Iranian woman. The significance of this year’s Nobel Prize is that it will inspire those thoughts in freedom-loving people all over the world, no matter their birthplace. It is a much needed spotlight on the continuing fight for human rights in Iran.
1- https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/2023/press-release/
2- https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/10/06/nobel-peace-prize-2023-iran/
3- https://www.cnn.com/2023/10/06/world/nobel-peace-prize-winner-2023-intl/index.html#:~:text=The%202023%20Nobel%20Peace%20Prize,announced%20in%20Oslo%20on%20Friday.
4- https://www.npr.org/2023/10/06/1204098220/the-nobel-prize-committee-announces-the-2023-laureate-of-the-peace-prize
5- https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/10/6/irans-narges-mohammadi-wins-2023-nobel-peace-prize#:~:text=Incarcerated%20this%20time%20since%20November,her%20husband%20%E2%80%93%20for%20eight%20years.
