Nobel Peace Prize awarded to jailed Iranian activist Narges Mohammadi for ‘fight against oppression of women’

The campaigner, 51, 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”.

Narges Mohammadi. Pic: Mohammadi family archive photos/Reuters

Jailed Iranian women’s rights activist Narges Mohammadi has won the Nobel Peace Prize for 2023.

The 51-year-old campaigner was given the award “for her fight against the oppression of women in Iran and her fight to promote human rights and freedom for all”.

The award also recognised the hundreds of thousands of people who have demonstrated against Iranian discrimination and oppression of women.

Anoosheh Ashoori, who spent five years in Iran’s notorious Evin prison – the same prison where Ms Mohammadi is serving multiple sentences – told Sky News he is worried about her even more now she has won the Nobel Peace Prize.

Mr Ashoori said he met “many other innocent people” there, adding that some “are still there, just going through that hell right now”.

He said he saw broken glass and blood on the floor of a medical centre during his time there and was told Ms Mohammadi had been pushed and thrown into a glass door by the prison’s director, adding: “He was quite famous for his brutalities.”

Asked if he thought the award might have a negative impact on her treatment and time in the jail, he said: “I am worried about it because I know how these beasts behave. It can have repercussions and I’m really worried about her safety.”

Responding to the news of the award, Ms Mohammadi vowed to be “more resilient, determined, hopeful and enthusiastic”.

“I will never stop striving for the realisation of democracy, freedom and equality,” she said in a statement to the New York Times.

“Standing alongside the brave mothers of Iran, I will continue to fight against the relentless discrimination, tyranny and gender-based oppression by the oppressive religious government until the liberation of women,” she added.

Her family said in a statement that while the honour could “never compensate” them for the time she had spent imprisoned, it was a “source of solace for our indescribable suffering”.

Who is Narges Mohammadi?

Ms Mohammadi is one of Iran’s leading human rights activists, and has also campaigned against the country’s death penalty.

She has been in prison almost continually over the last 13 years, having been jailed for 11 years in 2011 for “acting against the national security”.

That sentence was for her work with the Iranian human rights group, Defenders of Human Rights Center, of which she is vice-president.

Source : https://news.sky.com/story/nobel-peace-prize-awarded-to-irans-narges-mohammadi-12978009

India needs more women workers to be a $5 tn economy: World Bank India chief

World Bank India director Auguste Tano Kouamé. (AP)

India needs to increase the share of women in the workforce to 50% to boost its growth rate and become a $5 trillion economy, World Bank India director Auguste Tano Kouamé said. In an interview, he spoke of the impact of India’s inclusion in global bond indices and India’s potential growth drivers.

Source: https://www.livemint.com/news/world/india-needs-more-women-workers-to-be-a-5-tn-economy-world-bank-india-chief-11696356966803.html

China launches projects to build ‘new-era’ marriage, childbearing culture

Children play next to adults at a park in Beijing, China June 1, 2021. REUTERS/Tingshu Wang/File Photo

China will launch pilot projects in more than 20 cities to create a “new-era” marriage and childbearing culture to foster a friendly child bearing environment, the latest move by authorities to boost the country’s falling birth rate.

China’s Family Planning Association, a national body that implements the government’s population and fertility measures, will launch the projects to encourage women to marry and have children, state backed Global Times reported on Monday.

Promoting marrying, having children at appropriate ages, encouraging parents to share child-rearing responsibilities, and curbing high “bride prices” and other outdated customs are the focus of the projects, the Times said.

Cities included in the pilot include the manufacturing hub Guangzhou and Handan in China’s Hebei province. The association already launched projects in 20 cities including Beijing last year, the Times said.

“The society needs to guide young people more on the concept of marriage and childbirth,” demographer He Yafu told the Times.

The projects come amid a flurry of measures Chinese provinces are rolling out to spur people to have children, including tax incentives, housing subsidies, and free or subsidised education for having a third child.

China implemented a rigid one-child policy from 1980 until 2015 – the root of many of its demographic challenges that have allowed India to become the world’s most populous nation. The limit has since been raised to three children.

Concerned about China’s first population drop in six decades and its rapid ageing, the government’s political advisers proposed in March that single and unmarried women should have access to egg freezing and IVF treatment, among other services to boost the country’s fertility rate.

 

Source: https://www.reuters.com/world/china/china-launches-projects-build-new-era-marriage-childbearing-culture-2023-05-15/

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