Iran's Foreign Ministry on Friday condemned the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to jailed rights activist Narges Mohammadi, claiming the move was biased and amounted to a “politicization” of the prize.
"The action of the Nobel Peace Committee is political move in line with the interventionist and anti-Iranian policies of some European governments," ministry spokesperson Nasser Kanaani said, as quoted by Reuters.
"The Nobel Peace committee has awarded a prize to a person convicted of repeated law violations and criminal acts, and we condemn this as biased and politically motivated," he added.
The Norwegian Nobel Committee earlier on Friday announced that the Nobel Peace Prize for 2023 would be awarded to Mohammadi for her fight against the oppression of women in Iran and her fight to promote human rights and freedom for all.
In a release, the Committee said that Mohammadi's "brave struggle has come with tremendous personal costs. Altogether, the regime has arrested her 13 times, convicted her five times, and sentenced her to a total of 31 years in prison and 154 lashes. Ms. Mohammadi is still in prison as I speak."
A 51-year-old journalist and activist, Mohammadi has spent much of the past two decades in and out of jail for her campaign against the mandatory hijab for women and the death penalty.
She is the vice-president of the Defenders of Human Rights Centre founded by Iranian human rights lawyer Shirin Ebadi, who herself won a Nobel Peace Prize in 2003.
Mohammadi is currently behind bars at the notorious Evin Prison for the recent nationwide protests over the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who died last year.
Her death sparked several months of anti-government protests throughout Iran. The government crackdown on the demonstrations that followed Amini’s death resulted in hundreds of people being killed, including dozens of security personnel, and thousands arrested.
(Israel National News' North American desk is keeping you updated until the start of Simchat Torah and Shmini Atzeret in New York. The time posted automatically on all Israel National News articles, however, is Israeli time.)