Narges Mohammadi, 2023 Nobel Peace Prize winner (Wikimedia Commons)

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Women and Adversity:
Narges Mohammadi
2023 Nobel Peace Prize Winner

The suppression of women in Iran goes beyond what any American woman can imagine. Maybe you were passed up for a job, like I was, because a man applied, but to be jailed because you speak out against the government, don’t follow the government’s dress code, dance in public or don’t get spousal approval to travel are beyond any restrictions American woman can envision.

Narges Mohammadi (pronounced Nar⸍ gess Mohama⸍ dee) was sentenced to 10 years in Tehran’s Evin prison for “spreading anti-state propaganda.” She remains in prison but was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize October 6 for her efforts to have equal rights for women in Iran. She has been arrested 13 times and sentenced to a total of 31 years in prison and 154 lashes. She interviews women in the prison, reports stories of atrocities there and speaks out against the Iranian hijab rule.

Bio
Born April 21, 1972 in Zanjan, Iran
1990s – Studied physics at  Imam Khomeini University; founded a political group for Students. She began to actively protest for women’s equality in Iran in the early 90s.
Imprisoned in 1998 and has been intermittently imprisoned since then.

Career
Engineer for a building inspections company
Wrote for publications favoring reform, focusing on human rights and women’s issues
2003 – Joined Defenders of Human Rights Center, which advocates for political prisoners. Shirin Ebadi co-founded the group. She is the only other Iranian to receive the Nobel Prize for peace. Mohammadi is now deputy director of the group. It has been banned in Iran since 2008.
2009 –  Arrested for participating in the organization; her passport was confiscated
2011 – arrested; her husband fled to France with their children
2016-2020 – Imprisoned
2022 – She reports on the atrocities in Evin prison and has written White Torture: Interviews with Iranian Women Prisoners. She won the Reporters Without Borders Courage prize in 2022.

Personal Life
1999 – Married Taghi Rahmani, an intellectual who wants reforms in Iran. He has been imprisoned for his protests.
2006 – Twins, a boy, Ali, and girl, Kiana

Learn more about Mohammadi:
https://time.com/6321404/nobel-laureate-narges-mohammadis-evin-prison
Narges Mohammadi, Iranian Rights Activist, Receives Nobel Peace Prize – The New York Times (nytimes.com)
https://www.cnn.com/2023/10/06/middleeast/iran-narges-mohammadi-womens-rights-mime-intl-cmd/index.html

My ebooks available at amazon.com and barnesandnoble.com:
Honoring 23 Black Women, Recognizing 23 Notable Mothers, Saluting 23 Faithful Suffragists