Mahsa Amini, Women's Protest in Iran win EU's Sakharov freedom prize

 

Mahsa Amini, the 22-year-old Kurdish-Iranian woman who died in police custody in Iran in 2022, received the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought. The European Union (EU) parliament also awarded its annual Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought to the “Woman, Life, Freedom” protest in the Islamic Republic of Iran.

“On September 16, we commemorated one year since Jina Mahsa Amini was killed in Iran. The Iranian people’s quest for equality, decency, and freedom is one that the European Parliament is happy to support,” European Parliament’s President, Roberta Metsol said.

The European Parliament bestows a distinguished honor called the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought to the people who have dedicated their lives to promoting human rights and intellectual freedom. 

According to Roberta Metsola, president of the European Parliament, “The brutal murder of 22-year-old Jina Mahsa Amini has triggered a women-led movement that is making history.”

World leaders from all around the world praised the Iranian women’s protests. Iranian activists and journalists covered the protest movement extensively. 

Since the Islamic Revolution of 1979, Mahsa Amini and the Iranian “Woman, Life, Freedom” movement led to the worst political turmoil since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.