Nobel Peace Prize Goes to Iranian Activist Narges Mohammadi 

Iranian activist Narges Mohammadi was awarded the 2023 Nobel Peace Prize on Friday "for her fight against the oppression of women in Iran and her fight to promote human rights and freedom for all."

She remains imprisoned after her latest arrest for attending a memorial for a victim of violent protests in 2019.

The Iranian government has arrested her 13 times, convicted her five times, and sentenced her to a total of 31 years in prison and 154 lashes, the committee noted.

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

The Nobel committee said the prize also recognizes the hundreds of thousands of people who have demonstrated against Iran’s theocratic regime and its “policies of discrimination and oppression targeting women.”

Berit Reiss-Andersen, the chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee said the award sends a signal to the Iranian government: “Listen to your own people.”

In a first reaction from Tehran, the semi-official Fars news agency dismissed Mohammadi as someone who “persisted in creating tension and unrest and falsely claimed that she was beaten in prison.”

Fars is believed to be close to Iran’s hard-line paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, which answers only to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

The agency also reported she was awarded the prize for "her actions against Iran's national security" and “ad made headlines multiple times due to her acts against the national security,” the BBC reported.

The committee said it was still deciding how to award it to Mohammadi if Iranian officials do not release her from prison.

A panel of experts made the choice from a list of just over 350 nominations.

Last year's prize was won by human rights activists from Ukraine, Belarus and Russia.

Nominations come from former Nobel Peace Prize winners, members of the committee, heads of states, members of parliaments and professors of political science, history and international law.

The prize is handed out at a ceremony in December. The winner is given about $1 million.

Even though the rest of the prizes are picked and announced in Sweden, founder Alfred Nobel decreed that the peace prize should be judged in next door Norway.

Earlier this week, the Nobel committee awarded writer Jon Fosse the prize for literature. The chemistry prize went to Moungi Bawendi of MIT, Louis Brus of Columbia University, and Alexei Ekimov of Nanocrystals Technology Inc. Hungarian-American Katalin Karikó and American Drew Weissman won the Nobel Prize in medicine.

And on Tuesday, the physics prize went to French-Swedish physicist Anne L’Huillier, French scientist Pierre Agostini and Hungarian-born Ferenc Krausz.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.