A Kurdish Iranian lady who died in police custody has change into a logo of the ladies’s rights motion in Iran.
Mahsa Amini, the 22-year-old Kurdish-Iranian lady whose loss of life in police custody sparked a wave of ladies’s rights protests in Iran, has been awarded the European Union’s highest human rights award.
European Parliament President Roberta Metsola introduced on Thursday that Amini and the Iranian Women, Life and Freedom Movement, which was born out of months of road protests following her loss of life, had been awarded the EU’s Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought, which acknowledges laureates for his or her protection of “human rights and basic freedoms.”
Announcing the award, Metzora stated Amini had sparked a “historic” women-led motion in Iran and stated she hoped the prize would “function a tribute to the courageous and rebellious ladies, males and youth of Iran who’re searching for change.”
“The world is listening to the slogan ‘Women, Life and Freedom’. These three phrases have change into a slogan for all those that rise up for equality, dignity and freedom in Iran,” Metzora stated.
Amini, a member of Iran’s minority Kurdish neighborhood, was arrested in Tehran final yr by the “morality police” for refusing to comply with Iran’s hijab guidelines. She died in police custody three days later.
Her loss of life sparked almost three months of mass protests throughout Iran in 2022, with some ladies ignoring strict scarf guidelines and shouting anti-government slogans. Solidarity protests unfold all over the world, with demonstrations going down in main cities together with Paris, Berlin, Beirut and Istanbul.
Demonstrators maintain banners and flags throughout a protest towards the loss of life of Mahsa Amini in Iran, in Berlin, Germany, on October 22, 2022. [Christian Mang/Reuters]
“No official has confronted legal investigation, and nobody has been prosecuted or punished for crimes dedicated throughout or after the riots,” Diana Eltahawy, Amnesty International’s deputy director for the Middle East and North Africa area, stated in September 2023.
Amini just isn’t the one Iranian lady to have attracted international consideration for her affect on ladies’s rights: earlier this month, Iranian human rights activist Narges Mohammadi, who’s serving a 12-year jail sentence for her activism, was awarded the 2023 Nobel Peace Prize.
“The Norwegian Nobel Committee has determined to award the Nobel Peace Prize for 2023 to Narges Mohammadi for her combat towards the oppression of ladies in Iran and for selling human rights and freedoms for all folks,” the committee stated in a press release.