Women will overthrow the Islamic system established in Iran after the 1979 revolution even if the authorities survive a military conflict, Nobel Peace Prize winner Narges Mohammadi said in a message Saturday marking international women's day.
Mohammadi, 52, who won the 2023 Nobel prize in recognition of her years-long fight for human rights in Iran, is currently on temporary release from a prison term for health reasons. Her lawyers fear she could be sent back to prison any time.
Even behind bars, she was a strong supporter of the 2022-2023 protests that erupted across Iran following the September 2022 death in custody of Mahsa Amini.
An Iranian-Kurdish woman, Amini, 22, had been arrested for allegedly violating the Islamic republic's strict dress rules for women.
The protests shook Iranian authorities and remain a rallying cause even after petering out in the face of a fierce crackdown.
"Women have risen up against the Islamic republic in such a way that the regime no longer has the power to suppress them," said Mohammadi in the Persian video message from Iran published on her social media channels.
As usual, she was not wearing the headscarf that is obligatory for women in Iran.
"I am convinced that if the Islamic republic survives any war it will not survive resistance from women," she said, in apparent reference to the risk of armed conflict between Iran and Israel or the United States.
"The glass vessel that holds the life of the Islamic republic will be smashed by women," she said.
Mohammadi charged that Iranian women had been subjected to "gender apartheid" since the inception of the Islamic republic.
"I hope women will continue to lead the struggle against religious tyranny," whose defeat will be "our day of victory."
Her release in December from Evin prison marked the first time Mohammadi, who spent much of the past decade behind bars, has been free since her arrest in November 2021.
She also paid tribute to three women — Sharifeh Mohammadi, Verisheh Moradi and Pakhshan Azizi — who have been sentenced to death by Iran on charges of "rebellion." Mohammadi said the verdicts were "revenge" for their support of the protests.
