'Biased and political move': Iran denounces Nobel Committee's decision to award Peace Prize to Narges Mohammadi

Instead of celebrating the success of one of its citizens winning the coveted Nobel Peace Prize, Iran on Friday denounced the decision of the Nobel Committee to award the Peace Prize to jailed rights campaigner Narges Mohammadi as “biased and political”.

Mohammadi, 51 and currently in prison, was awarded the prize for her fight against the oppression of women in Iran and her fight to promote human rights and freedom for all.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani said in a statement, “We note that the Nobel Peace Committee awarded the Peace Prize to a person who was convicted of repeated violations of laws and criminal acts.”

He added, “We condemn this biased and political move.”

Kanani further slammed the Nobel Committee for making “false claims” which he said was “indicative of the approach of some European governments to falsify information and produce confusing and deviant narratives about internal developments in Iran”.

He said the decision to award Mohammadi the prize was a “disappointing deviation from its initial objectives”.

Mohammadi contributed to Iran’s ‘Woman, Life, Freedom’ movement which was triggered by the death of Mahsa Amini, the 22-year-old woman who died in police custody after she was arrested for not wearing her hijab ‘properly’.

According to the Nobel Prize Organisation, “Her 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.”

With inputs from AFP