Iran’s Mohammadi on FT List of Most Influential Women

Iranian human rights defender and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Narges Mohammadi has been included in the Financial Time’s 2023 list of the 25 most influential women in the world.

American music star Beyoncé, Ukrainian First Lady Olena Zelenska and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen were also selected for their “power to persuade, advocate for change and imagine better ways of doing things.” 

In the short text she wrote about Mohammadi, French-Iranian novelist Marjane Satrapi said that the imprisoned Iranian activist is “the personification of courage.”

“She fights for human rights, for the right of women to control their own bodies and against what she calls ‘white torture’ — the punishment of solitary confinement and extreme isolation perpetuated by the Islamic republic,” Satrapi added.

Mohammadi was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize last month for keeping up her fight against the “oppression of women” in her country despite spending years behind bars.

“It is a strong message to the world,” Satrapi said. “She represents us all. We reject submission! We disobey! We should be respected as human beings and not merely as females, whose only duty is to seduce men and give birth.”

“There is only one thing more beautiful than freedom: the fight for freedom. And this is what makes her, to me, the most inspiring person on earth,” she concludes.