Jina Mahsa Amini won EU’s Sakharov Prize 2023 – The European Union presented its top rights honour, the Sakharov Prize, to Mahsa Amini, the Iranian Kurdish woman who died in Iranian custody a year ago, and the “Woman, Life, Freedom” movement her death triggered.
The EU prize announcement was declared two weeks after the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to an imprisoned Iranian rights campaigner, Narges Mohammadi.
The two other nominations were Nicaraguan rights defenders, Vilma Nunez de Escorcia and Bishop Rolando Jose Alvarez Lagos; and three women campaigning for abortion rights, Justyna Wydrzynska from Poland, Morena Herrera from Salvador and Colleen McNicholas from the United States.
The Sakharov Prize includes a 50,000-euro ($53,000) endowment, which will be presented in a European Parliament ceremony on December 13, 2023.
Story of Mahsa Amini
Mahsa Amini, a young woman of only 22, died on September 16, 2022, during the custody of Iran’s religious police. Her alleged offence was a breach of the Islamic Republic’s strict dress code for women.