Children of Nobel winner Mohammadi 'worried' about her health

Children of Nobel winner Mohammadi 'worried' about her health
by AFP Staff Writers
Oslo (AFP) Dec 11, 2023

The children of imprisoned Iranian human rights activist and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Narges Mohammadi said Monday they were "extremely worried" about her health after she undertook a hunger strike in a Tehran prison.

Mohammadi, who has campaigned against the compulsory wearing of the hijab and the death penalty in Iran, stopped eating on Sunday in parallel with Sunday's Nobel prize ceremony in Oslo, where she was represented by her 17-year-old twins, Ali and Kiana.

It is not known whether her hunger strike is continuing or if it was just for the day.

"As her children, we are of course extremely worried," Ali said on Monday at a press conference that followed a meeting with Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store.

"Maybe she is in hospital right now," his sister Kiana added.

Mohammadi suffers from heart and lung conditions.

The twins have not seen their mother since leaving Iran to live in exile in France in 2015, and have not been able to speak to her for around 21 months.

Arrested 13 times, sentenced five times to a total of 31 years in prison and 154 lashes, Mohammadi has spent much of the past two decades in and out of jail.

The 51-year-old has been held at Tehran's Evin prison since 2021.

Her most recent hunger strike was "in solidarity" with Iran's largest religious minority, the Baha'i, which is the target of discrimination in many areas of society, according to its representatives.

"She did it to show her support, even though she is not here in Norway with us, that she is aware of the situation and that she will always do everything she can for women's rights and democracy in Iran," Kiana added on Monday.

Mohammadi was awarded the Nobel prize in October "for her fight against the oppression of women in Iran and her fight to promote human rights and freedom for all".

She is one of the women spearheading the "Woman, Life, Freedom" uprising, which included months-long protests across Iran triggered by the September 2022 death in custody of Mahsa Amini, 22, who had been arrested for allegedly flouting the Islamic republic's strict dress rules for women.

In early November, Mohammadi went on a hunger strike that lasted several days to obtain the right to receive medical treatment without wearing the hijab.

Nobel winner Mohammadi denounces 'tyrannical' regime in Iran
Oslo (AFP) Dec 10, 2023 - 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.

- Empty chair -

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.

She said Iran "is fundamentally alienating itself from its people", denouncing government repression, the lack of an independent judicial system, propaganda and censorship, and corruption.

In contrast to the fanfare in Oslo, Mohammadi would be observing a hunger strike at the same time, in solidarity with the Baha'i community, according to her family.

Representatives of Baha'i, Iran's largest religious minority, say it is the target of targeted discrimination.

- In Mandela's footsteps -

Mohammadi is the fifth laureate in the more than 120-year history of the Nobel Peace Prize to receive the award while detained.

She follows Germany's Carl von Ossietzky, Myanmar's Aung San Suu Kyi, China's Liu Xiaobo and Belarus's Ales Beliatski.

"Narges Mohammadi's struggle is also comparable to that of Albert Lutuli, Desmond Tutu and Nelson Mandela, which took place over a period of more than 30 years before the apartheid system in South Africa came to an end," the chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, Berit Reiss-Andersen, said in a speech.

Arrested 13 times, sentenced five times to a total of 31 years in prison and 154 lashes, Mohammadi has spent much of the past two decades in and out of jail.

Her twin children, who have not seen their mother for almost nine years, don't know if they'll ever see her alive again.

"Personally I'm rather pessimistic," Kiana Mohammadi told reporters on Saturday, while her brother Ali said he remained "very, very optimistic".

Protests in Iran triggered by Amini's death have been severely repressed.

The Iran Human Rights group (IHR) says 551 demonstrators, including dozens of women and children, have been killed by security forces, and thousands have been arrested.

On Saturday, the lawyer for Amini's family said her parents and brother, who were due to receive the European Parliament's Sakharov Prize for freedom of thought on Amini's behalf at a ceremony on December 13, was being prohibited from leaving Iran.

The laureates of the other Nobel prizes, in literature, chemistry, medicine, physics and economics, were presented their awards by Sweden's King Carl XVI Gustaf at a separate ceremony in Sweden, before heading to a lavish banquet at Stockholm's City Hall.