(Oslo) Imprisoned in her country, Iranian activist Narges Mohammadi, through the voice of her children, castigated the “tyrannical and misogynistic religious regime” in Iran on Sunday in Oslo during the presentation of her Nobel Peace Prize.
Fierce opponent of the compulsory wearing of the hijab for women and the death penalty in Iran, Mme Mohammadi has been detained in Tehran’s Evin prison since 2021 and was unable to receive the prestigious award in person.
During the ceremony at Oslo City Hall, it was her two 17-year-old twins, Ali and Kiana, exiled in France since 2015, who, dressed all in black, read in French the speech she managed to transmit from his cell.
“I am a woman from the Middle East, from a region that, although heir to a rich civilization, is currently trapped in war and prey to the flames of terrorism and extremism,” she said. -she said, in this message written “behind the high, cold walls of a prison”.
“I am an Iranian woman who is proud and honored to contribute to this civilization, she who is today a victim of the oppression of a tyrannical and misogynistic religious regime,” she added, urging the international community to do more for human rights.
In his absence, an armchair remained symbolically empty, topped with his portrait.
PHOTO FREDRIK VARFJELL, NTB VIA ASSOCIATED PRESS
Kiana Rahmani (left) and her brother Ali were seated on either side of an armchair that remained symbolically empty in the absence of Narges Mohammadi.
Arrested and convicted many times in recent decades, the 51-year-old activist is one of the main faces of the “Woman, Life, Freedom” uprising in Iran.
The movement, which saw women remove the veil, cut their hair and demonstrate in the streets, was sparked by the death last year of a 22-year-old Iranian Kurd, Mahsa Amini, after her arrest in Tehran for non-compliance with the strict Islamic dress code.
“The compulsory hijab imposed by the government is neither a religious obligation nor a cultural model, but rather a means of control and submission of the entire society,” repeated Mme Mohammadi on Sunday, calling the requirement for Iranian women to wear it a “governmental shame.”
In the speech read before the Norwegian royal family, the activist depicted an Islamic Republic “essentially foreign to its ‘people'”, denouncing in particular repression, the bringing into line of the judicial system, propaganda and censorship, nepotism and corruption.
Like Mandela
While she was celebrated with great fanfare in Oslo, the winner had to observe a hunger strike behind bars in solidarity with the Bahai community, the largest religious minority in Iran, which claims to be the victim of discrimination in many sections of society.
In the more than century-old history of the Nobel, Mme Mohammadi is the fifth laureate to receive the peace prize while in detention after the German Carl von Ossietzky, the Burmese Aung San Suu Kyi, the Chinese Liu Xiaobo and the Belarusian Ales Beliatski.
“The struggle of Narges Mohammadi can be compared […] to that of Albert Lutuli, Desmond Tutu and Nelson Mandela [qui ont tous aussi reçu le Nobel, NDLR]which lasted more than 30 years before the end of the apartheid regime in South Africa,” underlined the president of the Nobel committee, Berit Reiss-Andersen.
PHOTO FREDRIK VARFJELL, NTB VIA ASSOCIATED PRESS
The president of the Nobel committee, Berit Reiss-Andersen
“Women in Iran have been fighting against segregation for over 30 years. Their dream of a brighter future will eventually come true,” she said.
For their part, the twins of Narges Mohammadi, separated from their mother for more than eight years, say they do not know if they will ever see her alive again.
“Personally, I am quite pessimistic,” said his daughter Kiana on Saturday, while his brother Ali said on the contrary “very, very optimistic”.
Protest in Iran has been severely repressed. According to the NGO Iran Human Rights (IHR), 551 demonstrators, including dozens of women and children, were killed by security forces, and thousands more arrested.
According to their lawyer in France, Mahsa Amini’s family was prevented from leaving Iranian territory to receive, on Sunday during a parallel ceremony in France, the Sakharov Prize awarded to the young woman posthumously.
“The Iranian people, with perseverance, will overcome repression and authoritarianism,” assured Mr.me Mohammadi. “Do not doubt it, this is certain.”
The Nobel Prizes in other disciplines (literature, chemistry, medicine, physics, economics) must also be awarded during the day in Stockholm.