The Kurdish-Iranian girl who died in police custody turned an emblem for the ladies’s rights motion in Iran.
Mahsa Amini, the 22-year-old Kurdish-Iranian girl whose loss of life in police custody sparked a wave of girls’s rights protests in Iran, has been awarded the European Union’s prime human rights prize.
Amini, together with Iran’s Girls, Life and Freedom motion that emerged in a months-long road protest marketing campaign following her loss of life, acquired the EU’s Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought, European Parliament President Roberta Metsola introduced on Thursday, honouring them for his or her defence of “human rights and basic freedoms.”
Saying the prize, Metsola mentioned Amini had triggered a “historic” women-led motion within the nation and hoped the award would “function a tribute to the courageous and defiant girls, males and younger individuals of Iran” pushing for change.
“The world has heard the chants of ‘Girls, Life, Liberty.’ Three phrases which have turn into a rallying cry for all these standing up for equality, for dignity and for freedom in Iran,” Metsola mentioned.
A part of Iran’s minority Kurdish group, Amini was arrested in Tehran final yr by the “morality police” for allegedly not complying with the nation’s hijab guidelines. She died in police custody three days later.
Amini’s household have mentioned she was totally wholesome beforehand and eyewitnesses have mentioned they noticed her being crushed whereas coming into a police van. Iranian authorities have denied accountability, attributing Amini’s loss of life to a coronary heart assault.
Her loss of life triggered widespread protests throughout Iran for almost three months in 2022, with some girls attendees defying the strict headband guidelines and others chanting antigovernment slogans. Solidarity protests spread throughout the world, with demonstrations in Paris, Berlin, Beirut, Istanbul and different main cities.
Iranian authorities violently cracked down on the protest motion, killing 500 individuals and detaining 22,000, in keeping with rights teams. Tehran has rebuffed calls to open an impartial inquiry into the crackdown.
“Not one official has been criminally investigated, not to mention prosecuted and punished for crimes dedicated throughout, and within the aftermath of, the rebellion,” said Diana Eltahawy, Amnesty Worldwide’s Deputy Regional Director for the Center East and North Africa in September 2023.
Amini will not be the one Iranian girl to attract world consideration for her affect on girls’s rights. Earlier this month, Iranian human rights activist Narges Mohammadi, who’s serving a 12-year jail time period for her activism, won the 2023 Nobel Peace Prize.
“The Norwegian Nobel committee has determined to award the 2023 Nobel Peace Prize to Narges Mohammadi for her struggle in opposition to the oppression of girls in Iran and her struggle to advertise human rights and freedom for all,” the committee mentioned in its announcement.