Narges Mohammadi's peace prize is a milestone in a decades-long women's rights movement, punctuated by last year's "women, life, freedom" protests that inspired people around the world by defying the Iranian regime.Narges Mohammadi , who has campaigned for human rights in Iran for decades, has been in and out of jail for nearly 20 years due to her tireless advocacy in defiance of the Islamic Republic's regime.

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She has been arrested 13 times, convicted five times, and sentenced to a total of 31 years in jail. She is currently incarcerated in the Iranian capital Tehran's Evin prison, which is notorious for human rights abuses and the maltreatment of political prisoners in particular.

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On Friday, Berit Reiss-Andersen, the head of the Norwegian Nobel Committee in Oslo, said that Mohammadi had been awarded the 2023 Nobel Peace Prize for "her fight against the oppression of women in Iran and her fight to promote human rights and freedom for all."

Mohammadi's prize 'a tribute to resistance'

Mohammadi's husband, Taghi Rahmani, an exiled Iranian journalist who lives in France with the couple's children, told DW that the award was "a tribute to resistance."

"The fact that the ceremony began with the slogan of 'Women, Life, Freedom' shows that this award is meant for all those who are striving for civil liberties and democracy in Iran, and Narges is one of these individuals," he said.

In 2003, the Iranian lawyer and rights activist Shirin Ebadi became the first Iranian person, as well as the first woman from the Islamic world, to receive the Nobel Peace Prize. On Friday, she told DW that Mohammadi's peace prize would " draw international attention to human rights violations in Iran, particularly the discriminatory treatment of women."

"It will undoubtedly assist women in achieving equality and help Iranian society move towards democracy," she said, while "all Iranian women" and Mohammadi. "She deserves this award. She had to sit in prison for many years because of her human rights activities."

"It is an honor that two people from a human rights NGO in Iran have won the Nobel Peace Prize," she added, recalling Mohammadi's time at the Defenders of Human Rights Center, an Iranian human rights NGO Ebadi co-founded in 2001.

Iran a land of 'remarkable women'

Mansoureh Shojaei, an Iranian women's rights activist based in The Hague, told DW Mohammadi's peace prize is a sign that last year's "Women, Life, Freedom" protests have again drawn global attention to a women's rights movement that has been active in Iran for decades.

"When the Nobel Prize is awarded to Iranian women after a 20-year gap, it indicates that Iran is truly a land of remarkable women," Shojaei said.

"Whether they are Nobel laureates, women in prison, women in comas in hospitals, or women whose loved ones rest in cemeteries, and even those women who were banned from education and flogged in the streets — all of these demonstrate that the Nobel Prize awarded 20 years ago laid the foundation for various social and women's movements," she added.

Mohammadi, "is the daughter of those gatherings, the offspring of those coalitions, even though she was active herself back then and constantly ever since," Shojaei said.

Women, Life, Freedom in Iran

Women in Iran can face severe consequences, including death, simply for showing their hair in public. Going outside without a headscarf is forbidden by a strict "morality" code that is enforced by roving squads of police in major cities.

The issue received global attention following the death of a 22-year-old Kurdish woman, Jina Mahsa Amini, in the custody of Iran's "morality police," who had detained her for allegedly improperly wearing an Islamic hijab headscarf.

Amini's death sparked unprecedented protests in cities across Iran, which were led by young women, many of whom risked their lives to defy Iran's ruling regime.

People in cities around the world also staged demonstrations in solidarity.

Many demonstrators in Iran paid a heavy price, and hundreds of people were killed in violent police crackdowns in city streets during the protests.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee said the 2023 prize also recognized the thousands of Iranians who "demonstrated against Iran's theocratic regime's policies of discrimination and oppression targeting women."

Families of those victims are under continual pressure from authorities to not show any signs of fomenting dissent. The authorities go as far as banning relatives from gathering at grave sites of their murdered family members.

Mohammadi and fellow inmates staged a symbolic protest in the yard of Evin Prison by burning their headscarves on the anniversary of Amini's death last month.

And this week, the world received another reminder of the brutality faced by Iranian women at the hands of authorities. Activists say a 16-year-old girl was allegedly beaten into a coma by morality police in Tehran's subway because she was not wearing a hijab.

The future of Iranian women's rights

"Since the founding of the Islamic Republic in Iran in 1979, women in Iran have been systematically oppressed. Those who don't conform are punished. Women who resist, like me and other human rights activists, defy this system. Those in power try everything they can to break us and silence us," Mohammadi told DW in a June 2021 interview conducted before she began her latest prison sentence.

At the time, she had been charged with "propaganda against the political system" for trying to report the Evin prison director for severely beating her.

She said Iran's authorities target her, "mainly because I am a woman who does not give in."

Mohammadi's husband, who has not seen his wife in years, said that it was significant that the peace prize was awarded to someone who is in prison alongside other political activists.

He expressed hope that "civil institutions in foreign countries will exert pressure on their governments to consider human rights as one of the most important aspects in their relations" with Iran.

"Governments should understand that freedom in a globalized world is an issue of international importance," he added.

Women's advocate Shojaei said that the Nobel Prize can bring opportunities to women's rights movements, adding it is the "responsibility" of women active in social movements to "utilize these resources to the fullest extent."

The Hague-based activist said Iranian women's rights movement benefited from Ebadi's Nobel Prize 20 years ago, citing campaigns like the "one million signature campaign" in Iran calling for a change to discriminatory laws.

"This second Nobel Prize can be considered a result of the women's freedom movement," she said.

Iranian Nobel laureate Ebadi said that she hopes Mohammadi's 2023 Nobel Peace Prize will "make the Iranian government aware of its anti-human rights behavior" and force the officials to respect people's rights and release Mohammadi and all political prisoners from prison.

"I wish Iran freedom," she said.

Additional reporting by DW Farsi's Mitra Shodjaie.

Edited by: Darko Janjevic

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Oct 06, 2023 08:40 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).