Narges Mohammadi on Reproductive Rights & Ending Gender Apartheid To Nobel Peace Center
21th May 2025 / Nobel Peace Center Oslo Norway
Narges Mohammadi’s message on reproductive rights, abortion rights, and ending gender apartheid worldwide, delivered to the Nobel Peace Center conference ‘Reclaiming Our Rights’During a temporary suspension of her prison sentence, Narges Mohammadi speaks on the denial of abortion rights, the lack of access to reproductive healthcare, and the broader struggle for women’s rights in Iran—where the Woman, Life, Freedom movement continues to resist the Islamic Republic regime’s systematic violence, oppressive laws, and gender apartheid.
“On March 8, 1979, thousands of women marched the streets of Tehran for 3 days, protesting the imposed forced hijab law.
They chanted, for women’s rights, seeding a movement that In 2022, became a historic uprising.
Sparked by the killing of Mahsa Jina Amini, rooted in decades of oppression.
Our sisters in Afghanistan also endure unspeakable suffering under the Taliban’s gender apartheid regime. They are banned from education, employment, and public life. punished simply for being a woman.
beyond our region, women and girls across the globe face gender-based violence, femicide, sexual abuse, harassment, and systemic discrimination daily.
So I ask you today , Isn’t it time we call gender apartheid a crime against humanity?
In 2025, in Iran a woman still needs a man’s permission to obtain a passport.
Violating the mandatory hijab law can lead to 74 lashes, imprisonment, or even having one’s car impounded.
Husbands can legally block their wives from working.
Singing and dancing by women in public is banned.
Girls are forced to wear the hijab as young as six years old.
Execution sentences are still looming over married women accused of adultery while getting a divorce is often impossible for women under the Islamic Republic laws.
Abortion is criminalized unless pre approved.
Access to Birth control pills have been limited and there have been cases that doctors were pressured to report pregnancies.
Under the “Youthful Population and Protection of the Family” Law free access to condoms, birth control pills, and IUDs has been cut off — putting women’s health at risk.
These policies not only violate human rights but they are also pushing women toward dangerous underground alternatives.
This is systematic oppression.
This is gender apartheid and it must end.
The current legal framework fails to name the severity of this crime — leaving women in countries like Iran and Afghanistan with no protection.
For generations, women have endured violence, domination, and silence.
We cannot claim to stand for human rights while women’s rights are at risk.
