Children of imprisoned Iranian activist Narges Mohammadi settle for the Nobel Peace Prize on her behalf
HELSINKI — The kids of imprisoned Iranian activist Narges Mohammadi have accepted this 12 months’s Nobel Peace Prize on her behalf in a ceremony Sunday within the Norwegian capital. Mohammadi is famend for campaigning for ladies’s rights and democracy in her nation, in addition to preventing in opposition to the dying penalty.
Ali and Kiana Rahmani, Mohammadi’s twin 17-year-old kids who dwell in exile in Paris with their father, got the celebrated award at Oslo City Hall, after which they gave the Nobel Peace Prize lecture of their mom’s identify.
Mohammadi, 51, was awarded the 2023 Nobel Peace Prize in October for her many years of activism regardless of quite a few arrests by Iranian authorities and spending years behind bars. She is at the moment detained in a jail in Tehran.
In the presence of Norway’s King Harald and Queen Sonja and different dignitaries, Berit Reiss-Andersen, chairwoman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, cited Mohammadi‘s “life-long struggle in support of human rights and strong civil society.”
“No punishment has stopped her,” Reiss-Andersen stated. “When everything has been denied her, she still mobilizes the willpower and courage to make a statement. This year’s (Nobel) Peace Prize recognizes the brave women in Iran and around the world who fight for basic human rights and for an end to the discrimination and against segregation of women.”
As she handed the prize to Ali and Kiana Rahmani on the packed Oslo City Hall – embellished with blue orchids – an empty chair and a big {photograph} of their mom stood on the heart of the stage.
“She (Mohammadi) has asked us to use this particular photograph, which expresses how she wants to lead her life, looking happy in colorful garments, exposing her hair and with a steady gaze towards us,” Reiss-Andersen stated.
In their speeches, Mohammadi‘s children both expressed regret that their mother wasn’t allowed to be current in Oslo.
“She should have been here herself, but she was prevented by the executioners. I lend my voice to her, and to all the girls and women of Iran whom nothing can silence,” Kiana Rahmani stated in Farsi at first of her speech held in French.
Her brother famous that their mom’s “body is behind bars but her pen and thoughts have burst through the walls and reached us.”
“She and the Iranian people have never been more oppressed than now. But never has their voice resonated so strongly in the world. Let us continue to spread the reverberation so that Narges Mohammadi and the Iranian people will one day be able to break their chains,” he stated.
At a information convention in Oslo on Saturday, Kiana Rahmani learn out a message from her mom through which she praised the function worldwide media performed in “conveying the voice of dissenters, protesters and human rights defenders to the world.”
“Iranian society needs global support and you, journalists and media professionals are our greatest and most important allies in the difficult struggle against the destructive tyranny of the Islamic Republic government. I sincerely thank you for your efforts, for all you’ve done for us,” Mohammadi stated.
Kiana Rahmani stated she held little hope of seeing her mom once more.
“Maybe I’ll see her in 30 or 40 years, but I think I won’t see her again. But that doesn’t matter, because my mother will always live on in my heart, values that are worth fighting for,” she stated.
Mohammadi’s brother and husband instructed reporters in Oslo that she deliberate to go on a starvation strike on Sunday in solidarity with the Baha’i Faith non secular minority in Iran.
Rahmani‘s husband, Taghi, previously said that he hasn’t been in a position to see his spouse for 11 years, and their kids haven’t seen their mom for seven.
Mohammadi performed a number one function in protests triggered by the dying of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini final 12 months whereas in police custody for allegedly violating the nation’s strict scarf legislation which forces girls to cowl their hair and whole our bodies.
Iranian authorities banned members of Amini’s household from touring to just accept the European Union’s high human rights prize – the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought – on her behalf, the U.S.-based HRANA stated late Saturday.
Narges Mohammadi is the nineteenth lady to win the Nobel Peace Prize and the second Iranian lady after human rights activist Shirin Ebadi received the award in 2003.
It’s the fifth time within the 122-year historical past of the awards that the peace prize has been given to somebody who’s in jail or beneath home arrest.
The remainder of the Nobel prizes are set to be handed out in separate ceremonies in Stockholm later Sunday.
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Brooks reported from Copenhagen, Denmark. Associated Press author Vanessa Gera in Warsaw, Poland, contributed to this report.
