Mahsa Amini awarded EU human rights prize

Strasbourg: Mahsa Amini, the 22-year-old Kurdish-Iranian woman who died in police custody in Iran last year, sparking worldwide protests against the country’s conservative Islamic theocracy, was awarded the European Union’s top human rights prize on Thursday.

The EU award, named for Soviet dissident Andrei Sakharov, was created in 1988 to honour individuals or groups who defend human rights and fundamental freedoms. Sakharov, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, died in 1989.

Other finalists this year included Vilma N ez de Escorcia and Roman Catholic Bishop Rolando lvarez two emblematic figures in the fight for the defence of human rights in Nicaragua and a trio of women from Poland, El Salvador and the United States leading a fight for “free, safe and legal abortion.”

Amini died on September 16, 2022, after she was arrested for allegedly violating Iran’s mandatory headscarf law.

European Parliament President Roberta Metsola said that day will “live in infamy,” adding that her “brutal murder” marked a turning point.

“It has triggered a women-led movement that is making history,” she said as she announced the awarding of the prize to Amini and the Woman, Life, Freedom movement in Iran.

“The world has heard the chants of Women, Life, Liberty.’ Three words that have become a rallying cry for all those standing up for equality, for dignity and for freedom in Iran,” Metsola said.