Nobel Peace Prize winner says Iranian folks will prevail

OSLO:

“The Iranian folks will finally overcome authoritarianism imposed by a authorities that has misplaced legitimacy and public help,” Nobel Peace Prize winner Narges Mohammadi stated from jail in a speech learn by her youngsters on Sunday.

The Norwegian Nobel committee in October awarded the prize to Mohammadi, 51, for her non-violent struggle “in opposition to oppression of ladies in Iran” and the promotion of human rights for all, in a ‘rebuke’ to Tehran’s theocratic leaders.

Her 17-year-old twins Kiana and Ali Rahmani collected the prize, a gold medal and diploma, at a ceremony in Oslo’s Metropolis Corridor attended by a number of hundred friends.

The prize features a cheque for 11 million Swedish crowns (about $1 million).

In her speech, despatched from Iran Evin jail, Mohammadi stated continued resistance and non-violence had been the very best methods to result in change.

“The Iranian folks, with perseverance, will overcome repression and authoritarianism. Have little question, that is sure,” she stated in her speech learn in French.

The ladies’s rights advocate is serving a number of sentences on fees together with spreading propaganda in opposition to the Islamic Republic after her final arrest in November 2021.

Learn Extra: Iran places Mahsa Amini’s lawyer on trial: report

“I write this message from behind the excessive, chilly partitions of a jail,” Mohammadi stated, including that her life and lives of many activists in Iran had been a relentless wrestle “to remain alive”.

Mohammadi was symbolically represented on stage in Oslo by her portrait and an empty chair, highlighting that she is amongst solely a handful of laureates to be prevented from attending the ceremony because the award’s 1901 inception.

She was awarded the prize simply over a yr following 22-year-old Mahsa Amini’s dying within the custody of Iranian morality police after allegedly violating guidelines associated to the hijab, an Islamic headband.

Tehran has accused Nobel committee of meddling

Amini’s dying unleashed years of pent-up anger amongst Iranians over points starting from financial distress and “discrimination in opposition to ethnic minorities” to stricter social and political controls.

Ladies revolted in opposition to legal guidelines obliging them to cowl their hair and put on loose-fitting garments throughout nationwide protests that had been put down with lethal power.

“We consider that the necessary hijab imposed by the federal government is neither a spiritual obligation or a cultural custom, however somewhat a method of sustaining management and submission all through society,” Mohammadi stated.

Learn Extra: A minimum of 326 killed in Iran protest crackdown: new toll

Iran has referred to as the protests Western-led subversion, accusing the Nobel committee of meddling and politicising the difficulty of human rights.

The protest motion, which adopted the slogan – Girl, Life Freedom – has considerably contributed

to the growth of civil resistance in Iran, and went on regardless of extreme authorities repression, Mohammadi stated in her speech.

“The truth is that the Islamic Republic regime is at its lowest degree of legitimacy and widespread social help,” she stated.

“Now’s the time for worldwide civil society to help Iranian civil society, and I’ll exert all my efforts on this regard,” Mohammadi added.

The Nobel Peace Prize is awarded yearly on Dec. 10, the anniversary of the dying of Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel, who based the awards in his 1895 will.