7^th October 2023

Press release

For immediate use

The Committee for the Defence of the Iranian People’s Rights (CODIR) has welcomed the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to imprisoned women’s and human rights activist, Narges Mohammadi, and noted that support for the award has come from across the globe.

The statement of the Nobel Committee referred to the fact that,

“Narges Mohammadi’s brave struggle has personally cost her gravely. The Iranian regime has arrested her 13 times, convicted her five times and sentenced her to a total of 31 years in prison and 154 lashes”.

Ms. Mohammadi has not seen her children for eight years and has spent most of her recent life in prison.  First arrested 22 years ago, Ms. Mohammadi has spent much of the past two decades in and out of jail and is currently almost two years into a combined sentence of 10 years nine and months imposed following her re-arrest in November 2021.

Born in 1972 in the northwest of Iran, Ms. Mohammadi studied physics before becoming an engineer. She then launched a new career in journalism, working for newspapers that were at the time part of the reformist movement.  In the 2000s, she joined the Centre for Human Rights Defenders, founded by the Iranian lawyer Shirin Ebadi, Nobel Peace Prize winner in 2003, fighting in particular for the abolition of the death penalty.

CODIR Assistant General Secretary, Jamshid Ahmadi, welcomed the Nobel Peace Prize award while condemning the continued imprisonment of Ms. Mohammadi.

“Narges Mohammadi is a shining example of the courageous women activists of Iran who fight against the widespread and systematic violation of human rights, and sexual harassment and torture of freedom-seeking activists in the prisons of the Islamic Republic,” he said. “Today, Iran’s prisons are filled with women activists and fighters who are spending long-term sentences in the prisons of the Islamic Republic.  Many are imprisoned on trumped-up charges solely because they have fought against the regime’s tyranny and dared to call and campaign for the legitimate rights long denied to the women of Iran.”

The statement of the Nobel Prize Committee also made reference to the wider struggle of the Iranian people, stating,

“This year’s Nobel Peace Prize is also a tribute to the hundreds of thousands of people who protested against the religious regime’s discriminatory and repressive policies against women.”

CODIR has reiterated its call to support the resistance of the Iranian people and all the brave women of Iran who have taken part in the “Woman, Life, Freedom” protest movement. CODIR once again calls for the immediate and unconditional release of Ms. Narges Mohammadi and all Iranian political detainees and prisoners of conscience.

CODIR has called for all forces supporting the struggle for human and democratic rights in Iran, to condemn the imprisonment of political prisoners through issuing statements in solidarity with those campaigning for their release.  

CODIR requests that trade union affiliates write to the embassy of the Islamic Republic of Iran to make clear their opposition to these imprisonments and the restrictions placed upon freedom of expression in Iran. 

ENDS

Further information for Editors

Contact Information for CODIR:-

Postal Address:
B.M.CODIR
London
WC1N 3XX
UK
Website: www.codir.net
E-mail: codir_info@btinternet.com

Further information on CODIR

CODIR is the Committee for the Defence of the Iranian People’s Rights.  It has been established since 1981 and has consistently campaigned to expose human rights abuses in the Islamic Republic of Iran.