Women, Life, Freedom — Will Nobel Peace Prize to Iran's Narges Mohammadi energise struggle for women's rights?

The 2023 Nobel Peace Prize laureate Narges Mohammadi was arrested for the first time in Iran for her criticism of the country's regime twenty-five years ago in 1998.

Mohammadi's name became synonymous with the battle for human rights in Iran, where West Asia's first feminist uprising broke out last year following the death of Mahsa Amini whilst in the custody of the country's notorious morality police. 

Also read | Nobel Peace Prize 2023 goes to Iranian human rights activist Narges Mohammadi

In awarding the prize to Mohammadi, the Nobel Committee said it "recognises the hundreds of thousands of people who in the preceding year have demonstrated against the theocratic regimes’ policies of discrimination and oppression targeting women."

Mohammadi is currently spending her 13th spell in an Iranian jail.

In May 2016, she was sentenced in Tehran to 16 years in prison for her role in running "a human rights movement that campaigns for the abolition of death penalty".

While imprisoned at Tehran's Evin prison, the 51-year-old mother of two became the 2023 Nobel peace laureate "for her fight against the oppression of women in Iran and her fight to promote human rights and freedom for all" on October 6.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee described Mohammadi's struggle for human rights in Iran as an uphill battle that has "come with tremendous personal costs".

"This is a mother who has spent more time in the notorious Evin prison than with her two children and husband," Ali Vaez, Director of Iran Project and Senior Adviser to the President of Crisis Group told WION. 

Located in the Evin neighbourhood of the Iranian capital Tehran, the facility has been the primary site for imprisoning Iran's political prisoners since 1972, before and after the Islamic Revolution.

Evin Prison's main entrance in 2008 | Wikimedia Commons

Tehran has been accused of keeping the Evin Prison as a site of "serious human rights abuses" against political dissidents and critics of the regime.

"Narges' persistence to pursue her principled fight for women's rights in Iran in the face of formidable pressure is truly remarkable. She is the one Iranian activist who no one can blame for any missteps in her long and remarkable career," added Vaez. 

Narges Mohammadi as Nobel laureate: Implications for Tehran's regime

Narges Mohammedi had been the vice president of Defenders of Human Rights Center, which remains shut down since December 2008 after being banned by Tehran. The rights organisation was headed by 2003 Nobel Peace laureate Shirin Ebadi. 

Shirin Ebadi won Nobel Peace Prize in 2003 | AFP

Ebadi, who has lived in exile in London since 2009, was the first Muslim woman and the first Iranian to receive the award.

While the recognition of Narges' struggles for women's rights with the coveted Nobel increases the political cost of repression for the Iranian regime, it is unlikely to dissuade Tehran from pursuing what amounts to gender apartheid, Vaez said. 

"Another Iranian woman won the Nobel prize 20 years ago but the regime remains unchanged and unreformed," Vaez added, while referring to Ebadi winning Nobel Peace Prize in 2003.

"The prize is, however, bound to energise Iranian women to continue their fight for their rights and dignity," said Vaez.

Iranian women experience discrimination in law and in practice particularly in relation to marriage, divorce and custody issues.

Post-1979 compulsory hijab laws affect virtually every aspect of women’s public life in Iran. Women's access to employment, education, social benefits and proper health care depends on complying with compulsory hijab laws, which are routinely enforced through a web of rules and arbitrary interpretation by state agents, such as the morality police.

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