By Francesca Gillett BBC News 10 December 2023
Updated December 11, 2023
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Kiana and Ali Rahmani, 17, accepted the prize on behalf of their mom, whom they have not seen in years.
The teenage twins of imprisoned Iranian activist Narges Mohammadi have been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize on her behalf.
Ms Mohammadi, who’s serving a 10-year jail sentence in Tehran, obtained this yr’s award for her work combating in opposition to ladies’s oppression in Iran.
In a speech smuggled out of jail and skim aloud to kids, she denounced Iran’s “tyrannical” authorities.
“There’s no must doubt it, that is sure.”
The prestigious Peace Prize was awarded in Oslo on Sunday, together with different Nobel Prizes in literature, science and economics.
Ms. Mohammadi has been a distinguished human rights activist in Iran for a few years. The 51-year-old has been in jail nearly repeatedly since 2010, having been arrested a complete of 13 occasions, convicted 5 occasions, and sentenced to a complete of 31 years in jail.
She is at present in jail on prices of “spreading propaganda.”
Her husband, political activist Taghi Rahmani, lives in exile in Paris with their two kids and has not seen her for years.
“I’m scripting this message from behind the excessive chilly partitions of a jail,” Mohammadi mentioned in a speech given in French by 17-year-old kids Kiana and Ali Rahmani, who had been smuggled from Iran.
She praised younger Iranians who “turned streets and public areas into websites of widespread civil resistance,” referring to the protests that started final yr following the demise of Mahsa Amini.
“Resistance is alive and the battle is just not abating. Resistance and non-violence are our greatest methods. This is similar tough path Iranians have taken to this present day due to historic consciousness and collective will. is.”
The twins obtained their prizes, together with a test value 11 million Swedish crowns (roughly $1 million), at a ceremony attended by a whole bunch of company at Oslo City Hall.
There was an empty chair on the rostrum between her kids to point her absence.
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Ali and Kiana Rahmani stay in exile in France subsequent to their mom’s empty chair.
On Saturday, Ms Mohammadi’s husband Rahmani informed BBC Hard Talk that his spouse had as soon as written a letter to their kids expressing their hope that they’d “forgive” her for not with the ability to “be their mom”.
He mentioned she was amongst a gaggle of imprisoned human rights defenders “standing in opposition to the tyranny of the Islamic Republic.”
British-Iranian Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who spent six years in an Iranian jail on spying prices and attended a ceremony in Oslo on Sunday, appeared on Radio 4’s Today program on Monday and mentioned that Mohammadi was the He mentioned he was somebody he trusted.
Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who met Mohammadi in jail, mentioned, “What she gave others was help and love and a way of safety that from the second they entered this house, they had been watched over.” Told.
She mentioned Mohammadi was identified for his kindness and concern for folks. “But greater than that, I believe, as anybody who has lived with Narges is aware of, Narges will stay life to the fullest, benefiting from her magnificence, and on the similar time… , that if you are going to struggle, you are going to select to struggle.” I believe that is nice. ”
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Narges Mohammadi, 51, is at present serving a 10-year jail sentence.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry beforehand mentioned the Nobel Prize was “biased” and according to the “interventionist and anti-Iranian insurance policies of some European nations.”
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Taghi Rahmani seems on BBC Hard Talk: Nobel Peace Prize win ‘buoys’ spouse