Oslo, Dec 10 (EFE).- The children of jailed Iranian activist Narges Mohammadi on Sunday accepted the Nobel Peace Prize on her behalf.
At a ceremony in Oslo, her 17-year-old twins, Kiana and Ali Rahmani, read a speech written by Mohammadi from Evin prison in Tehran, in which she urged the international community to help end the ruling Islamist regime in Iran.
“Today, the youth of Iran have transformed the streets and public spaces into an arena for widespread civil resistance. Resistance is alive, and the struggle endures,” Mohammadi said.
Mohammadi, 51, who will begin a new hunger strike today to show solidarity with the alleged persecution of the Baha’i religious minority in her country, said she was “confident that the light of freedom and justice will shine brightly on the land of Iran.”
Saying she is just one among “the millions of proud and resilient Iranian women who have risen up against oppression, repression, discrimination, and tyranny,” Mohammadi stressed that the “Women, Life, Freedom” protest movement, born last year after the death of Mahsa Amini following her arrest for allegedly violating the dress code, is a “continuation of historical struggles.”
“This movement has contributed significantly to the expansion of civil resistance in Iran, encompassing movements of women, youth, students, teachers, workers, human rights activists, environmentalists, and others. Essentially, it is a movement for fundamental change.,” she said in a speech read in French, as her children have resided for years with their father in exile in Paris.
The Iranian regime has however blocked any change, reducing political participation to “zero,” responding to demands for democracy with “arrests, imprisonment and bullets”, said Mohammadi, who accused Tehran of religious, gender and ethnic discrimination, as well as promoting injustice and corruption.
Despite the crackdown, the activist said the movement remains “alive and dynamic”.
Although she thanked global organizations and media for their support, she criticized the West for lacking “serious attention, practical coherence, and proactive approach”.
“The policies and strategies of Western governments have been ineffectual in truly empowering the Iranian people to achieve their goals,” said Mohammadi, who succeeds Belarus’s Ales Bialiatski, Ukraine’s Center for Civil Liberties and Russia’s Memorial on the Nobel Peace Prize list.
An advocate of resistance and non-violence, Mohammadi – represented by a portrait of herself placed behind the chair she was to occupy – expressed confidence in the “undeniable” impact of the Nobel for the opposition movement in Iran, which “inspires” her and gives her “hope”.
“This year’s Peace Prize recognizes all the brave women in Iran, and around the world, who fight for basic human rights and for an end to the discrimination against and segregation of woman,” said Norwegian Nobel Committee chairwoman Berit Reiss-Andersen in her speech beforehand at a ceremony presided over by King Harald V and Queen Sonia.
Reiss-Andersen compared Mohammadi’s struggle to that of previous Nobel Peace Prize winners such as Martin Luther King, Desmond Tutu and Nelson Mandela. EFE
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