Nobel winner Narges Mohammadi denounces ‘tyrannical’ regime in Iran

OSLO: Imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize winner Narges Mohammadi denounced Sunday a “tyrannical and anti-women religious” government in Iran, in a speech delivered by her children who accepted the award in her absence.

“The Iranian people will dismantle obstruction and despotism through their persistence,” Mohammadi said in the speech.

“Have no doubt — this is certain,” she said.

Mohammadi, who has campaigned against the compulsory wearing of the hijab and the death penalty in Iran, has been held since 2021 in Tehran’s Evin prison.

Instead, her 17-year-old twins Ali and Kiana, both living in exile in France since 2015, received the award on her behalf, reading a speech she managed to smuggle out of her cell.

“I am a Middle Eastern woman, and come from a region which, despite its rich civilisation, is now trapped amid war, the fire of terrorism, and extremism,” she said in a message that was written “behind the high, cold walls of a prison”.

“I am an Iranian woman, a proud and honourable contributor to civilisation, who is currently under the oppression of a despotic religious government,” she said.

A chair was left symbolically empty at the ceremony, where a portrait of the laureate was displayed.

Mohammadi is one of the women spearheading the “Woman, Life, Freedom” uprising, which saw months-long protests across Iran triggered by the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini.

Amini, an Iranian Kurdish woman, died on September 16, 2022, while being held by Iran’s religious police for allegedly breaching the Islamic republic’s dress code for women.

The movement that sprung up in the wake of Amini’s death seeks the end of Iran’s imposition of a headscarf on all women and an end to the Muslim cleric-led government in Tehran.

“The mandatory hijab imposed by the government is neither a religious obligation or a cultural tradition, but rather a means of maintaining authority and submission throughout society,” Mohammadi said in the speech read before the Norwegian royal family and foreign dignitaries.