Since 1901, five Nobel Peace Prize winners have been awarded the prestigious honor while in detention. This is the case of the Iranian Narges Mohammadi, crowned last year from a cell in Evin prison, in Tehran. It was her children, Ali and Kiana Rahmani, living in exile in Paris with their father, who accepted the honor on behalf of their mother, during a ceremony in Oslo in December. As the 2024 Nobel Prizes are announced this week, Duty spoke with Narges Mohammadi’s twins, forced to live far from their mother, but driven by her fight for women’s rights.
“Even if freedom seems far away and difficult to achieve, even if the idea of being able to hold our mother in our arms again seems impossible, we know that she will never stop fighting,” Kiana and Ali mention with emotion Rahmani, 17, in a series of written responses sent to the Duty.
Standard bearer of the fight against Iranian theocracy, Narges Mohammadi, 52, has been campaigning for more than twenty years against the death penalty and torture practiced by the Iranian regime. Since 1998, the human rights activist has been arrested more than a dozen times by theocratic authorities and repeatedly sentenced to harsh prison terms.
“Our mother spent more than 10 years in prison, including 135 days in solitary confinement. Despite all the suffering she has endured and her current physical condition, she is still sentenced to serve almost 11 years in prison. It’s really cruel,” his children denounce.
Kiana and Ali emphasize that their mother does not just denounce the ayatollahs’ regime, but acts with courage. “Our mother defies the autocratic regime and refuses to obey its sexist and discriminatory laws. »
Narges Mohammadi’s fight against gender-based apartheid comes at the cost of “his life”, Kiana and Ali are indignant, adding sadly that his “absence from us will never be filled”.
Gender-based apartheid
In a message sent on September 16 on the occasion of the second anniversary of the outbreak of the Women, Life, Freedom movement in Iran, Narges Mohammadi called on the international community for stricter measures against regimes institutionalizing discrimination against women.
“I call on international institutions and people around the world not only to observe, but to actively act,” she declared from Evin prison. I urge the United Nations to emerge from its silence and inaction in the face of the devastating oppression and discrimination perpetrated by theocratic and authoritarian governments against women, by criminalizing gender-based apartheid. »
The movement of defiance towards the Khamenei regime – calling, among other things, for an end to the compulsory wearing of the veil – has been severely repressed for two years by the Iranian authorities. According to Iran Human Rights (IHR), as of September 16, at least 551 protesters had been killed, 10 protesters had been executed, more than 30,000 had been arbitrarily arrested, and hundreds had been intentionally blinded. .
Foundation
To continue their mother’s fight, Kiana and Ali Rahmani will soon launch the Narges Foundation, which aims to promote fundamental rights and women’s rights in Iran.
“We are determined to continue our mother’s fight by supporting civil institutions inside the country, to defend political prisoners and women, to fight against gender apartheid,” they detail, specifying that they will be the co-presidents of this foundation in order to “pursue the path [tracée par notre mère] with the same determination [qu’elle] “.
“As our mother always says, they recall: “Victory is not easy, but it is certain!” »