Iran’s defiant women’s rights activist Narges Mohammadi won the Nobel Peace Prize Friday while still locked up in a brutal Tehran prison.

The award committee gave the honor while also calling for Iran’s theocratic leaders to free the 51-year-old activist, whose protests have seen her arrested 13 times and sentenced to a total of 31 years in prison. 

“This prize is first and foremost a recognition of the very important work of a whole movement in Iran with its undisputed leader, Nargis Mohammadi,” said Berit Reiss-Andersen, the chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee who announced the prize in Oslo.

“The impact of the prize is not for the Nobel committee to decide upon. We hope that it is an encouragement to continue the work in whichever form this movement finds to be fitting.”

Mohammadi became the 19th woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize — and the second one from Iran — while she is still behind bars in Tehran’s notorious Evin Prison. 

“If the Iranian authorities make the right decision they will release her so she can be present to receive this honor, which is what we primarily hope for,” Reiss-Andersen said of the ceremony held in December.

Iran accused the Nobel committee of meddling, saying that giving a “person who has been convicted under the laws of a country and is currently serving a prison sentence can only be called politicizing the concept of human rights and acting in a meddling manner.” 

Mohammadi, however, said in a prepared statement released Friday that she will “never stop striving for the realization of democracy, freedom and equality.”

“Surely, the Nobel Peace Prize will make me more resilient, determined, hopeful and enthusiastic on this path, and it will accelerate my pace,” she said in a statement.

Her husband, Taghi Rahmani — who lives in exile in Paris with their two children, 16-year-old twins — said his wife “has a sentence she always repeats: ‘Every single award will make me more intrepid, more resilient and more brave for realizing human rights, freedom, civil equality and democracy.’”

Their son, Ali Rahmani, said the Nobel was not just for his mother: “It’s for the struggle.΅

“This prize is for the entire population, for the whole struggle from the beginning, since the Islamic government came to power,” the teen said.

Mohammadi was most recently incarcerated after being detained in 2021 after she attended a memorial for 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who died behind bars.

Amini’s death sparked a large challenge over Iran’s theocracy and more than 500 people were killed and more than 22,000 were arrested. 

From behind bars, Mohammadi contributed an opinion piece for The New York Times.

“What the government may not understand is that the more of us they lock up, the stronger we become,” she wrote.

British-Iranian Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe — who spent time with Mohammadi in jail before being released in March 2022 — said hearing her friend had won the award made her “cry.” 

“She did so much for all of us in Evin. Narges is an inspiration and a pillar to the women in the female ward in Evin for her fearless fight against violations of women’s rights, the use of solitary confinement and execution in the judicial system in Iran,” she said, according to BBC. 

“This award belongs to every single Iranian woman who, one way or another, has been and remains a victim of injustice in Iran.”

Before being jailed, Mohammadi was vice president of the banned Defenders of Human Rights Center in Iran. In 2018, Mohammadi, an engineer, was awarded the 2018 Andrei Sakharov Prize.

PEN America, which advocates for freedom of speech and earlier this year gave Mohammadi its PEN/Barbey Freedom to Write Award, applauded her win.

The choice “is a tribute to her courage and that of countless women and girls who have poured out into the streets of Iran and faced down one of the world’s most brutal and stubborn regimes, risking their lives to demand their rights,” PEN America CEO Suzanne Nossel said in a statement.

Amnesty International also called for Mohammadi’s immediate release.

“Her recognition today by the Nobel Peace committee sends a clear message to the Iranian authorities that their crackdown on peaceful critics and human rights defenders will not go unchallenged,” Amnesty Secretary-General Agnès Callamard said.

The Nobel Prizes carry a cash award of 11 million Swedish kronor (about $1 million). Winners also receive an 18-carat gold medal and diploma at the award ceremonies in December.

With Post wires