Iranian activist Narges Mohammadi, Nobel Peace Prize laureate in 2023 and imprisoned in her country for her defence of human rights, wants the UN to criminalise gender apartheid and considers the imposition of the Islamic veil on women to be one of the foundations of “despotism” in Iran.
In an interview published Thursday by French magazine Elle, which she answered while she was out of prison for three weeks in December for medical reasons, Mohammadi said she had finished writing her autobiography, which she intends to publish, and that she is working on another book about sexual harassment against women detained in Iran.
The Nobel Prize winner insists that “the Islamic regime considers the submission of women a strategic point to establish its power and maintain domination not only over women but over the whole of society. Because by imposing the obligatory veil, not only the women's bodies are controlled but the whole of society is made responsible through the guardianship of the husband, the son.”
That is why he believes that "if this domination is abolished, despotism will be overthrown."
For Mohammadi, the most important mission of the Nobel laureates, particularly in the Middle East, is to get the UN to criminalise “gender apartheid”, i.e. the fact that women have a lower legal status than men.
That is why she wrote a letter to the UN Secretary General, António Guterres: “We must fight against those regimes and governments that ignore women’s rights, relegate them, make their lives impossible, endanger them or force them to stay in power.”
According to his analysis, the response to the regime in Iran with “the people's drive towards democracy, freedom and equality is unstoppable,” although he recognizes that “the path will not be free of obstacles.”
Mohammadi, who is 52 years old and has been serving a series of prison sentences for 26 years for her human rights activism, particularly against the death penalty and for women's rights, is currently serving a 13-year sentence in Evin prison in Tehran, after being sentenced to 2021 years in November XNUMX, plus another XNUMX months for propaganda against the regime of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
In November he had a tumour removed from his leg and, as he had to undergo a series of medical checks, he was granted three weeks' leave on 4 December.
He says his health is “weakened” by three years of detention without permits, during which he has been denied medical attention, but he says his mental state “is made of steel.”
His temporary release from prison in December allowed him to speak by videoconference with his two children, Ali and Kiana, aged 18, who are refugees in Paris, with whom he had not been able to speak for two years due to his prison regime, and whom he has not seen for ten years.
He points out that “in an Iranian political prison there is no room for normality” because, “beyond the fact that there are innocent people detained arbitrarily, isolation is one of the most frequently used instruments of torture.” EFE
Narges Mohammadi calls on the UN to criminalise gender apartheid as in Iran
