In a dark cell in the notorious Evin prison in Tehran, Narges Mohammadi heard the news that the world respects and appreciates her fight for human rights, which has brought her out of favor with the Iranian regime.

Fifty-one-year-old Mohammadi has invested 30 years of her life in human rights activism and advocacy, advocating for fundamental change through education, calls for civil disobedience and strengthening civil society. The committee in Oslo, which today awarded her the Nobel Peace Prize as the highest global recognition, reminded that Mohammadi personally paid a huge price for her struggle – she was left without freedom, without health, separated from her husband, children and parents.

The Iranian woman continues her fight even from the dungeons of Evin, criticizing the Iranian government for refusing to expand the freedoms of citizens, especially women. After mass riots broke out last September over the death of Mahsa Amini, the 22-year-old Iranian woman who died in prison after being detained by Iran's "police for the defense of moral values," Mohammadi organized peaceful protests and wrote articles and organized weekly "workshops" from prison. ", to whom he explained their rights to the other prisoners.

- The global support and recognition of my fight for human rights make me even more determined, even more responsible and fills me with passion and hope. I hope this recognition will make the protests of Iranians stronger and more organized. The victory is close - Mohammadi wrote for the newspaper "New York Times" in June of this year.

The Iranian woman has not seen her twin daughters, 16-year-old Ali and Kiana, who live in exile in France with Taghi Rahmani, her husband and fellow human rights activist, for more than eight years.

Just a few days ago, Rahmani assessed that the Nobel Prize for Mohammadi would be a great recognition for the decades of activism, but also something more.

- It would be a reward for all human rights activists who have been fighting for changes in a society with unjust laws for decades. It is a recognition of the movement "Women, life, freedom!" in Iran - said the husband of the Nobel laureate.

Mohammadi is a friend, student and collaborator of the only other Iranian Nobel laureate – Shirin Ebadi, who received the Peace Prize in 2003. Mohammadi worked at the Center for Human Rights Defenders, which was founded by Ebadi in 2001 and closed after a violent raid on its premises in 2009.

Narges Mohammadi comes from a middle-class family in the central city of Zanjan. She was seven years old when the Islamic Revolution fundamentally changed the lives of all Iranians. She started her activism as a physics student at the University of Qazvin, where she met her future husband – a journalist, activist and a well-known figure in intellectual circles. Spouses were rarely together, many times they were arrested and imprisoned. After being blessed with twin sons and daughters, they hardly ever came together as a family. Mohammadi is now serving a ten-year prison sentence for spreading propaganda.

She was first arrested in 1998 for criticizing the government and spent a year in prison. In April 2010, she was brought before the Islamic Revolutionary Court for being a member of the non-governmental group, and was released on a bail of 50.000 dollars, but after a few days she was imprisoned again in Evin. In a cell, she fell ill with an epilepsy-like illness, with periodic uncontrollable loss of muscle control. She was released early, but after just a few months she was again accused of "acts against national security and propaganda against the regime" and sentenced to 11 years in prison. After an appeal, her sentence was reduced to 6 years, and she was released after only a few months due to fierce protests from the British Foreign Office, the groups Amnesty International and Reporters Without Borders, and MPs from the USA, Canada, Britain, Australia, Italy and Lithuania.

She was free for barely three years, before she was sentenced to another ten years in prison for "founding an illegal group", "conspiracy against national security" and "propaganda against the system". She was released in October 2020, but already in May 2021 she was sentenced to two and a half years in prison and 80 lashes for "spreading propaganda". In November 2021, she was arrested without a warrant and is still in jail. Towards the end of last year, while there were still mass protests in Iran over the death of Mahsa Amini, Mohammadi sent a report on the sexual and physical abuse of female prisoners at Evin, naming 58 women who had been tortured and 57 of them who had spent time in solitary confinement. a total of 8.350 days.

The Nobel is not her first prize. Among the ten international awards, she received the "Andrei Sakharov" prize in 2018, last year she was included in the list of "One Hundred Inspiring and Influential Women" by the BBC, and this year she also received the "Olof Palme" prize and was named by the United Nations as one of the three laureates for Freedom of the Press.

"I hope to keep my eyes on the horizon and the future, even though the prison walls are high and obstruct my view," Mohammadi recently told The Times magazine.