OSLO – Iran’s jailed women’s rights advocate Narges Mohammadi won the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday, in a rebuke to Teheran’s theocratic leaders and boost for anti-government protesters.

The award-making committee said the prize honoured all those behind recent unprecedented demonstrations in Iran and called for the release of Ms Mohammadi, 51, who has campaigned for both women’s rights and the abolition of the death penalty.

Ms Mohammadi is currently serving multiple sentences in Teheran’s Evin Prison amounting to about 12 years’ imprisonment, according to the Front Line Defenders rights organisation, one of the many periods she has been behind bars. Charges include spreading propaganda against the state.

She is the deputy head of the Defenders of Human Rights Centre, a non-governmental organisation led by Ms Shirin Ebadi, the 2003 Nobel Peace Prize laureate.

“The global support and recognition of my human rights advocacy makes me more resolved, more responsible, more passionate and more hopeful,” Ms Mohammadi said in a written statement to The New York Times.

“I also hope this recognition makes Iranians protesting for change stronger and more organised. Victory is near.”

Ms Mohammadi is the 19th woman to win the 122-year-old prize, and the first one since journalist Maria Ressa of the Philippines won the award in 2021 jointly with Russian journalist Dmitry Muratov.

This year, there were 351 candidates for the prize, according to the Nobel Committee, making it the second-highest number ever. 

Ms Mohammadi’s win came just over a year after the death of Ms Mahsa Amini in the custody of morality police for allegedly flouting the Islamic Republic’s dress code for women.

That provoked nationwide protests, the biggest challenge to Iran’s government in years, and was met with a deadly crackdown.

“This prize is first and foremost a recognition of the very important work of a whole movement in Iran, with its undisputed leader, Narges Mohammadi,” said Norwegian Nobel Committee head Berit Reiss-Andersen.

“If the Iranian authorities make the right decision, they will release her, so she can be present to receive this honour (in December), which is what we primarily hope for.”

There was no immediate official reaction from Teheran, which calls the protests Western-led subversion. But semi-official news agency Fars said Ms Mohammadi had “received her prize from the Westerners” after making headlines “due to her acts against the national security”.

Ms Mohammadi’s husband Taghi Rahmani told Reuters in his home in Paris: “This Nobel Prize will embolden Narges’ fight for human rights, but more importantly, this is in fact a prize for the woman, life and freedom (movement).”

While her brother said the prize was overwhelming, and he hoped it would make Iranian campaigners safer.

“The situation there is very dangerous, activists there can lose their lives,” Mr Hamidreza Mohammed told Norwegian public broadcaster NRK.

Ms Reiss-Andersen began her speech by saying, in Farsi, the words for “woman, life, freedom” – the protest slogan – and saying the award recognised the hundreds of thousands who have opposed discrimination and oppression of women in Iran.

Among a stream of tributes from major global bodies, the UN human rights office said the Nobel award highlighted the bravery of Iranian women.

“We’ve seen their courage and determination in the face of reprisals, intimidation, violence and detention,” said its spokeswoman Elizabeth Throssell.

“They’ve been harassed for what they do or don’t wear. There are increasingly stringent legal, social and economic measures against them... They are an inspiration to the world.”

Mr Dan Smith, head of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute think-tank, said that while the prize could help ease pressure on Iranian dissidents, it would be unlikely to lead to her release.

The Nobel Peace Prize, worth 11 million Swedish krona (S$1.36 million), will be presented in Oslo on Dec 10, the anniversary of the death of Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel, who founded the awards in his 1895 will.

The past winners of the Nobel Peace Prize include Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela. REUTERS, NYTIMES

Recent winners of the Nobel Peace Prize

2023: Ms Narges Mohammadi (Iran)

2022: Mr Ales Bialiatski (Belarus), Memorial (Russia) and the Centre for Civil Liberties (Ukraine)

2021: Ms Maria Ressa (the Philippines/United States) and Mr Dmitry Muratov (Russia)

2020: The UN World Food Programme

2019: Mr Abiy Ahmed Ali (Ethiopia)

2018: Mr Denis Mukwege (Democratic Republic of the Congo) and Ms Nadia Murad (Iraq)

2017: International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons

2016: Mr Juan Manuel Santos (Colombia)

2015: The National Dialogue Quartet (Tunisia)

2014: Mr Kailash Satyarthi (India) and Ms Malala Yousafzai (Pakistan)