Front Line Defenders' Executive Director Alan Glasgow (second from L) at the launch event in Oslo.
Front Line Defenders was proud to take part in a special ceremony to launch the Free Narges Coalition during the Nobel Peace Center’s annual Nobel Peace Conference and Festival in Oslo on 5 September 2024.
The Free Narges Coalition was established in June this year to campaign for the release of imprisoned Iranian woman human rights defender and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Narges Mohammadi. Led by the Narges Mohammadi Foundation, PEN America, Reporters Without Borders (RSF), and Front Line Defenders, the coalition urges the global community to hold the Iranian government accountable for its abuses and is committed to securing Narges Mohammadi’s release and amplifying her voice in the fight for human rights. The Coalition demands Narges’ release as she represents many others who are persecuted and silenced, including all political prisoners in Iran, and advocates for their right to speak.
Narges Mohammadi is a woman human rights defender and deputy director and spokesperson of the Defenders of Human Rights Centre (DHRC) in Iran. She has advocated for the abolition of the death penalty in Iran, as well as for prisoners’ rights. As a direct result of her human rights work she has been imprisoned on several occasions, most recently in November 2021. She is the 2023 Nobel Peace Prize laureate for her “fight against the oppression of women in Iran and her fight to promote human rights and freedom for all”.
This year’s Nobel Peace Conference, titled “Women – Life – Freedom” in homage to the massive women-led protest movement in Iran two years ago, highlighted the dangerous rollbacks of women’s rights across the world and discussed best practices to counter them, in the presence of 250 guests and tens of thousands online participants from around the world.
Among the speakers were four Nobel Peace Prize laureates and Kiana and Ali Rahmani, Narges Mohammadi’s children, who delivered a powerful message sent from their mother in prison:
“The power of women's defiance against misogynistic and discriminatory laws, traditions, religious rituals, and the moral values imposed by authoritarian, inhumane, and reactionary ideologies has been growing and expanding. This is why the government has even lined up women for execution, unaware that we are not afraid of execution. You hear these days about Pakhshan and Sharifeh, who have been sentenced to death, and Nasim and Varisha, who are at risk of the death penalty. I will stand by them and fight against executions.”
Kiana and Ali also released a peace dove into the skies of Oslo to mark the launch of the Free Narges coalition.
“What [the Iranian authorities] want is Narges’s silence. It is such a joy today to see that she has not been silenced. We want people to ensure that this strategy won’t work,” said Front Line Defenders’ Executive Director Alan Glasgow, addressing the conference.
The Free Narges Coalition steering committee is deeply concerned about the rapid deterioration of Narges Mohammadi's health in Iran’s notorious Evin prison, where she has been held continuously since November 2021, following prior periods of incarceration. Over the past decade, Narges has endured more than 10 years behind bars in retaliation for her journalism and human rights work. Despite ongoing repression, she continues to speak out from within prison walls, facing additional charges and sentences in response.
The livestream from the conference is available on the Nobel Peace Center’s website.
