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Iran women's activist Narges Mohammadi wins peace Nobel
The Nobel Peace Prize was awarded Friday to imprisoned activist Narges Mohammadi for her fight against the oppression of women in Iran.
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Iranian women's rights campaigner Narges Mohammadi is seen at her home in Tehran on September 4 2001. (AFP/Behrouz Mehri)
T
he Nobel Peace Prize was awarded Friday to imprisoned activist Narges Mohammadi for her fight against the oppression of women in Iran, many of whom are removing their hijabs despite a harsh crackdown.
Mohammadi's award comes after a wave of protests swept Iran after the death in custody a year ago of a young Iranian Kurd, Mahsa Amini, arrested for violating Iran's strict dress rules for women.
A journalist and activist, Mohammadi has spent much of the past two decades in and out of jail for her campaign against the mandatory hijab for women and the death penalty.
Speaking to AFP, the head of the Norwegian Nobel Committee urged Iran to release Mohammadi, a call immediately echoed by the United Nations.
"I appeal to Iran: Do something dignified and release the Nobel laureate Narges Mohammadi," chairwoman the committee Berit Reiss-Andersen said.
The recent protests in Iran "accelerated the process of realising democracy, freedom and equality in Iran," a process that is now "irreversible", Mohammadi told AFP last month in a letter written from her prison cell.
She and three other women held with her at Tehran's Evin prison burned their hijabs to mark the anniversary of Amini's death on September 16.
