Mahsa Amini, the 22-year-old Kurdish-Iranian girl who died in police custody in Iran final yr, sparking worldwide protests in opposition to the nation’s conservative Islamic theocracy, has been named a finalist for the European Union’s prime human rights prize
ByThe Related Press
October 12, 2023, 6:38 AM
Protesters exhibit on the event of the one-year anniversary of the loss of life of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, in Rome, Saturday, Sept. 16, 2023. Amini died following her arrest by the Iran’s morality police for allegedly violating the nation’s obligatory headband rule. Writing on poster reads in Italian “Lady, Life, Freedom.” (Mauro Scrobogna/LaPresse through AP)
The Related Press
BRUSSELS — Mahsa Amini, the 22-year-old Kurdish-Iranian girl who died in police custody in Iran final yr, sparking worldwide protests in opposition to the nation’s conservative Islamic theocracy, has been named a finalist for the European Union’s prime human rights prize.
The European Parliament on Thursday introduced the three finalists for this yr’s Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought, together with Amini and “the Lady, Life, Freedom Motion in Iran.”
The choice was “in recognition of their courageous effort to face up for girls’s rights,” stated David McAllister, the chair of the overseas affairs committee on the EU Parliament.
Amini died on Sept. 16, 2022, after she was arrested for allegedly violating Iran’s obligatory headband regulation.
The opposite nominees are Vilma Nunez de Escorcia and Roman Catholic Bishop Rolando Álvarez — two emblematic figures within the struggle for the protection of human rights in Nicaragua — and a trio of girls from Poland, El Salvador and the US main a struggle for “free, secure and authorized abortion.”
Amini died three days after she was arrested by Iran’s morality police, allegedly for violating legal guidelines that require ladies to cowl their hair in public. Whereas authorities stated she suffered a coronary heart assault, Amini’s supporters stated she was overwhelmed by police and died because of her accidents.
Her loss of life triggered protests that unfold throughout the nation and quickly escalated into requires the overthrow of Iran’s four-decade-old Islamic theocracy.
Authorities responded with a violent crackdown through which greater than 500 individuals had been killed and over 22,000 others had been detained, in accordance with rights teams. The demonstrations largely died down early this yr, however there are nonetheless widespread indicators of discontent. For a number of months, ladies might be seen brazenly flaunting the headband rule in Tehran and different cities, prompting a renewed crackdown over the summer time.
The EU award, named for Soviet dissident Andrei Sakharov, was created in 1988 to honor people or teams who defend human rights and basic freedoms. Sakharov, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, died in 1989.
The winner shall be introduced on Oct. 19.
