GENEVA (Reuters) – The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) said on Friday the award of the Nobel Peace Prize to jailed activist Narges Mohammadi highlighted the courage and determination of Iranian women.
“We’ve seen their courage and determination in the face of reprisals, intimidation, violence and detention,” OHCHR spokesperson Elizabeth Throssell told reporters in Geneva.
“They’ve been harassed for what they do or don’t wear. There are increasingly stringent legal, social and economic measures against them. This really is something that highlights the courage and determination of the women of Iran and how they are an inspiration to the world.”
Throssell also reiterated calls for the release of Mohammadi, one of Iran’s leading activists who has campaigned for both women’s rights and the abolition of the death penalty. She is serving a 12-year jail sentence.
“We and other partners of the U.N. human rights system have repeatedly called for her release,” Throssell told Reuters.
(Reporting by Gabrielle Tétrault-Farber and Cécile Mantovani; Editing by Alison Williams and Gareth Jones)
