Children of jailed Iranian human rights activist accept her Nobel Peace Prize

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The kids of imprisoned Iranian activist Narges Mohammadi have accepted this yr’s Nobel Peace Prize on her behalf, having not seen her for seven years.

Ali and Kiana Rahmani, Ms Mohammadi’s twin 17-year-old kids who dwell in exile in Paris with their father, got the award at Oslo Metropolis Corridor, earlier than giving the Nobel Peace Prize lecture of their mom’s title. There was an empty chair on the rostrum between her kids, to mark her absence.

Mohammadi, 51, a famend advocate for girls’s rights and democracy in her house nation of Iran, is presently being held within the infamous Evin jail in Tehran, the capital, serving an eight-year sentence for “spreading propaganda”.

Estimates differ however it’s believed Ms Mohammadi has been convicted 5 occasions, arrested 13 occasions and sentenced to a complete of 31 years in jail. Along with the a number of jail sentences handed all the way down to Ms Mohammadi, she has additionally been given 150 lashes.

At a information convention in Oslo, the Norwegian capital, Mohammadi’s daughter Kiana thanked worldwide media for telling her mom’s story.

“Iranian society wants international help and also you, journalists and media professionals, are our best and most vital allies within the tough battle in opposition to the harmful tyranny of the Islamic Republic authorities,” she mentioned.  “I sincerely thanks to your efforts, for all you’ve completed for us.”

However she added that she held little hope of seeing her mom once more.

Addressing her mom’s continuous detention, she mentioned: “Perhaps I’ll see her in 30 or 40 years however I believe I received’t see her once more. However that doesn’t matter as a result of my mom will at all times dwell on in my coronary heart, values which are value preventing for.”

Mohammadi has remained vocal throughout her time in jail. Within the presence of Norway’s King Harald and Queen Sonja and different dignitaries, Berit Reiss-Andersen, chairwoman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, applauded Ms Mohammadi’s dedication to human rights regardless of the large price of talking out.

“No punishment has stopped her,” Ms Reiss-Andersen mentioned, including that Ms Mohammadi had been engaged in a “life-long battle in help of human rights and powerful civil society”.

Talking to Radio 4’s Right now programme on Monday, Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe – the British-Iranian nationwide who spent six years in an Iranian jail accused of spying and who attended the ceremony in Oslo on Sunday – mentioned Ms Mohammadi was a person everybody relied on.

Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who met Mohammadi whereas in jail, mentioned: “What she gave others was the help and the love and the peace of thoughts that you will be taken care of the second you enter this house.”

Mohammadi’s brother and husband informed reporters in Oslo that she deliberate to go on a starvation strike in solidarity with the Baha’i Religion non secular minority in Iran.

Her husband Taghi Rahmani beforehand mentioned that he has not been in a position to see his spouse for 11 years, and their kids haven’t seen their mom for seven.

Mohammadi performed a number one position in protests triggered by the demise of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini final yr whereas in custody of the morality police in Tehran for allegedly violating Iran’s strict guidelines requiring girls to cowl their hair with a hijab, or headband.