Narges Mohammadi is known for her campaign against the death penalty and her opposition to the compulsory hijab.
She called Narges Mohammadi Nobel Peace Prize laureate, imprisoned in Tehran since 2021, urges international community to “break silence” on “oppression of women” in Iran, two years after launch of Women’s Lives Freedom movement
“I call on international institutions and the people of the world… to take action,” Mohammadi said in a letter written in prison on Saturday and shared by those close to her on social media on Monday.
She continued, “I pray United Nations To break the silence and inaction in the face of the devastating oppression and discrimination perpetrated against women by religious and authoritarian governments, by criminalizing gender apartheid.”
Protests erupted after the death of young Iranian Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini on September 16, 2022, days after she was arrested by Tehran’s morality police for not adhering to strict dress codes.
Mohammadi, an activist known for her campaign against the death penalty and her opposition to compulsory hijab, has been held in Tehran’s Evin Prison since November 2021. She has been imprisoned several times over the past decade.
Activist Mohammadi has been held in Tehran’s Evin prison since November 2021. AFP
On Sunday, she participated in a symbolic hunger strike alongside 33 women in Evin Prison for 24 hours on the second anniversary of the protest movement “in solidarity with protesters in Iran against the government’s repressive policies.”
Her two sons received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2013 on her behalf while she was in prison.
Amini’s death sparked protests that were some of the largest since the victory of the Islamic Revolution in 1979.
She was Women The focus of the protests, during which they revolted against one of the basic pillars of the Islamic system, which is the obligation to wear the hijab.
The authorities considered most of the movements to be “riots” fueled by Western or anti-revolutionary parties, and they were violently suppressed. According to Amnesty International, Iranian security forces used firearms to confront the protesters.
Human rights groups say 551 people have been killed during the protests, while authorities say dozens of security personnel have also been killed. Thousands of people have been arrested, according to the United Nations.
But Mohammadi continued her defiance.
“Despite the difficult road ahead, we all know that nothing will ever be the same again,” she wrote.
“People feel the greatest change in their beliefs, their lives and their society. It is a change that, although it has not yet succeeded in toppling the Islamic Republic regime, has shaken the foundations of religious tyranny,” she added.
