Jailed Iranian Activist Narges Mohammadi Wins Nobel Peace Prize

Prominent Iranian human rights activist Narges Mohammadi speaks in a meeting in Tehran, Iran, on July 3, 2008. The Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded to Narges Mohammadi for fighting oppression of women in Iran. The chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee announced the prize Friday, Oct. 6, 2023 in Oslo. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
Prominent Iranian human rights activist Narges Mohammadi speaks in a meeting in Tehran, Iran, on July 3, 2008. The Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded to Narges Mohammadi for fighting oppression of women in Iran. The chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee announced the prize Friday, Oct. 6, 2023 in Oslo. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
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Jailed Iranian Activist Narges Mohammadi Wins Nobel Peace Prize

Prominent Iranian human rights activist Narges Mohammadi speaks in a meeting in Tehran, Iran, on July 3, 2008. The Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded to Narges Mohammadi for fighting oppression of women in Iran. The chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee announced the prize Friday, Oct. 6, 2023 in Oslo. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
Prominent Iranian human rights activist Narges Mohammadi speaks in a meeting in Tehran, Iran, on July 3, 2008. The Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded to Narges Mohammadi for fighting oppression of women in Iran. The chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee announced the prize Friday, Oct. 6, 2023 in Oslo. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

Narges Mohammadi, an Iranian women's rights advocate serving 12 years in jail, won the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday.

The award-making committee said the prize was testimony to all those behind recent unprecedented protests in Iran and called for the release of Mohammadi, who has campaigned for both women's rights and the abolition of the death penalty, Reuters reported.

"This prize is first and foremost a recognition of the very important work of a whole movement in Iran, with its undisputed leader, Narges Mohammadi," said Berit Reiss-Andersen, head of the Norwegian Nobel Committee Reiss-Andersen.

"If the Iranian authorities make the right decision, they will release her so that she can be present to receive this honor (in December), which is what we primarily hope for."

Tehran calls the protests Western-led subversion.

Mohammadi is currently serving multiple sentences in Tehran's Evin Prison amounting to about 12 years imprisonment, according to the Front Line Defenders rights organization, one of the many periods she has been detained behind bars.

Charges include spreading propaganda against the state.

She is the deputy head of the Defenders of Human Rights Center, a non-governmental organization led by Shirin Ebadi, the 2003 Nobel Peace Prize laureate.

Mohammadi is the 19th woman to win the 122-year-old prize and the first one since Maria Ressa of the Philippines won the award in 2021 jointly with Russia's Dmitry Muratov.

"This Nobel Prize will embolden Narges' fight for human rights, but more importantly, this is in fact a prize for the woman, life and freedom (movement)," Mohammadi's husband Taghi Ramahi told Reuters at his home in Paris.

The Nobel Peace Prize, worth 11 million Swedish crowns, or around $1 million, will be presented in Oslo on Dec. 10, the anniversary of the death of Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel, who founded the awards in his 1895 will.

Committee head Reiss-Andersen began her speech by saying, in Farsi, the words for "woman, life, freedom" - a protest slogan - and saying the award recognized the hundreds of thousands who have opposed discrimination and oppression of women in Iran.

Mohammadi's win came as rights groups say that an Iranian teenage girl was hospitalized in a coma after a confrontation on the Tehran metro for not wearing a hijab.

Iranian authorities deny the reports

The Nobel prize also came just over a year after the death of Mahsa Amini in the custody of morality police for allegedly flouting Iran's dress code for women.

That provoked nationwide protests, the biggest challenge to Iran's government in years, and was met with a deadly crackdown.

The UN human rights office said the Nobel award highlighted the bravery of Iranian women. "We've seen their courage and determination in the face of reprisals, intimidation, violence and detention," said its spokesperson Elizabeth Throssell .

"They've been harassed for what they do or don't wear. There are increasingly stringent legal, social and economic measures against them ... they are an inspiration to the world."



Zelenskiy Says Post-war Security Guarantee Would Need at Least 200,000 Peacekeepers

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy speaks during the 55th annual meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland, January 21, 2025. (Reuters)
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy speaks during the 55th annual meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland, January 21, 2025. (Reuters)
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Zelenskiy Says Post-war Security Guarantee Would Need at Least 200,000 Peacekeepers

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy speaks during the 55th annual meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland, January 21, 2025. (Reuters)
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy speaks during the 55th annual meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland, January 21, 2025. (Reuters)

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, who is seeking a meeting with US President Donald Trump, said on Tuesday that a contingent of at least 200,000 European peacekeepers would be needed as part of any settlement to end the war with Russia.

The Ukrainian leader, speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland a day after Trump returned to power following months of promises to end the war in Ukraine quickly, also urged European leaders to do more to defend the continent.

The prospect of a rapid settlement has focused minds in Kyiv and Europe on the urgent need for security guarantees to prevent any future Russian attack, with the idea of peacekeeping contingent force circulating.

"From all the Europeans? 200,000, it's a minimum. It's a minimum, otherwise it's nothing," Zelenskiy said when asked about the idea of a peacekeeping mission on an interview panel after delivering his speech.

Zelenskiy said Ukraine was working to set up a meeting between him and Trump.

"The teams have been working on a meeting, they are currently in the process," Zelenskiy said about those efforts.

Trump, who returned to office on Monday, has said he will stop the war in Ukraine swiftly, without saying how.

Zelenskiy said Ukraine would not agree to Russian demands that it drastically reduce the size of its military, predicting that Russian President Vladimir Putin would demand Ukraine cut its armed forces to a fifth of their size.

"This is what he wants. We will not allow this to happen," Zelenskiy said.

In his speech, Zelenskiy said Europe must make itself a strong global player, able to guarantee peace and security for itself and for others. He suggested Europe had less influence over Washington because the United States viewed its allies' contribution to security as lacking.

"Does anyone in the United States worry that Europe might abandon them someday – might stop being their ally? The answer is no," Zelenskiy said.

He said that Europeans needed to devise a united security and defense policy and alluded to a pre-inauguration remark by Trump, who proposed a massive hike in defense spending for NATO members to 5% of GDP.

"If it takes 5% of GDP to cover defense, then so be it, 5% it is. And there is no need to play with people's emotions that defense should be compensated at the expense of medicine or pensions – that's not fair," Zelenskiy said.