This picture dated June 25, 2007, shows Iranian human rights activist, Narges Mohammadi, at the Defenders of Human Rights Center in Tehran. (Photo: AFP/UCAN files)
Jailed Iranian activist and Nobel Laureate Narges Mohammadi has been named for this year's Mother Teresa Memorial Award for Social Justice by Harmony Foundation, a voluntary group based in Mumbai, western India.
She is chosen considering "her intrepid fight against religious despotism in a country like Iran, where women are subjugated and oppressed,” Abraham Mathai, founder-chairman of the group told UCA News on Oct. 23.
Mohammadi’s husband, Taghi Rahmani, and their two children have agreed to accept the award on her behalf when it will be presented in the last week of November, Mathai said.
Mathai, a former vice chairman of the state minority commission in the western Indian state of Maharashtra, said the jailed activist truly epitomized “humanity in action” through her battle against the oppression of women in Iran.
The Harmony Foundation, which instituted the award in memory of Saint Mother Teresa in 2005, in a statement hailed her “undaunted courage as a fearless defender and advocate of human rights against a murderous and fundamentalist regime.”
The 51-year-old Mohammadi, who won this year’s Nobel Peace Prize, is the deputy director of the Defenders of Human Rights Center and is currently lodged in Tehran's Evin Prison.
She has been imprisoned 13 times, and convicted five times with a cumulative prison sentence of 31 years.
Her current imprisonment is for her open support to Mahsa Amini, the 22-year-old girl who was allegedly killed in the custody of Iran’s religious and moral police for not wearing the hijab, in September 2022.
Amini's death sparked a massive wave of outrage and widespread demonstrations against Iran's regime and several people were killed in subsequent protests.
The foundation awards the Mother Teresa Memorial Awards to eminent personalities and organizations from across the world for their outstanding contributions to social justice, the betterment of society, and the well-being of suffering and marginalized humanity.
“The Harmony Foundation, too, stands alongside the visionary warriors across the world who courageously advocate against women’s oppression, igniting change and inspiring hope,” it said.
The previous winners of the award include Nobel Laureates Tawakkol Karman and Malala Yousufzai, and Laila Talo Khudher Alali, a Yazidi woman who escaped from ISIS captivity in Iraq.
