Maria Machado, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2025, has announced that she is ready to hand over her award to U.S. President Donald Trump.
The opposition leader justified this step by stating that Trump's military operations in Venezuela "serve peace." The American leader considered this action as a sign of respect.
Alfred Nobel's famous "Will" does not include provisions for awarding or revoking the prize. However, in the procedure for nominating candidates for the Nobel Peace Prize, those who have been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize have the right to nominate candidates in this field. Machado can nominate Trump's candidacy this year.
I will provide two interesting examples related to attempts to revoke the award.
In 1998, Portuguese writer Jose Saramago was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature for "providing us with the opportunity to understand reality, which we try to escape from at every step, through parables woven from imagination, compassion, and irony."
Saramago's 1991 novel "The Gospel According to Jesus Christ" was considered an insult by the Catholic Church. The church's protest stated: "This heretical book mocks historical truths, insults the characters of the New Testament." Nevertheless, the work was translated into 25 languages and published 20 times solely in Portugal.
In 2001, V. S. Naipaul was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature for "an unbiased and subtle mastery of narrative which forces the reader to open their eyes to oppressive cultures."
The Trinidadian writer Naipaul devoted his novel "Among the Believers" to the life of Muslims. He blamed the entire Islamic world, from Iran and Pakistan to Indonesia and Malaysia, for Islamic fundamentalism, calling Islam, a religion that entered human civilization with high moral and ethical values, "a failed religion." He stated that "the unchanging and backward Islamic society" does not intend to keep pace with the new era.
After the writer was awarded the Nobel Prize, the Islamic Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (ISESCO) sent a letter to the Nobel Committee requesting the revocation of the award because of his attitude towards Islam. The letter stated that awarding Naipaul such a prestigious prize is "slander against Islam."
However, since there is no mechanism for revoking the award, neither Saramago nor Naipaul could be deprived of the prize.
Etibar Aliyev,
education expert
