Iran’s Mahsa Amini awarded EU’s Sakharov human rights prize

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, has been awarded the EU’s top human rights prize.

The award, named for the 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 Núñez de Escorcia and Rolando Álvarez, two emblematic figures in the fight for the defence of human rights in Nicaragua, and three women from Poland, El Salvador and the US leading a fight for free, safe and legal abortion.

Amini died on 16 September 2022, three days after she was arrested for allegedly violating Iran’s mandatory headscarf law. The European parliament president, Roberta Metsola, said that day would “live in infamy” and Amini’s “brutal murder” marked a turning point.

“It has triggered a women-led movement that is making history,” Metsola 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.”

Iranian authorities said Amini had a heart attack, but Amini’s supporters say she was beaten by police and died as a result of her injuries. Her death triggered protests that spread across the country and rapidly escalated into calls for the overthrow of Iran’s four-decade-old Islamic theocracy.

Authorities responded with a violent crackdown in which more than 500 people were killed and 22,000 detained, according to rights groups.

The demonstrations largely died down early this year but there are still widespread signs of discontent. For several months, women could be seen openly flouting the headscarf rule in Tehran and other cities, prompting a renewed crackdown over the summer.

The award ceremony will take place on 13 December. Last year’s prize was awarded to the people of Ukraine and their representatives for their resistance to Russia’s invasion.