The young Iranian Mahsa Amini and the ‘Women, Life and Freedom’ movement, with which they protested against Iranian laws discriminatory against women after Amini’s death, achieved this Thursday the Sakharov Prize for freedom of conscience awarded by the European Parliament.

“The brutal murder of Mahsa Amini has become a turning point. It has activated a women-led movement that it’s being historic. The world has heard the cry of ‘Woman, Life and Freedom’, which is has become a motto for those who defend equality, dignity and freedom in Iran,” the President of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola, announced to the Chamber.

After a long applause from the MEPs, Metsola asked that the award serve “as a tribute to the brave and brave women, men and young people challengers in Iran who, despite increasing pressure, are leading the push for change.” “The European Parliament hears you, the world sees you and we are with you“, stressed the president of the European Parliament.

Amini, who died just over a year ago in police custody after being detained by the so-called morality police by not wearing the Islamic veil properlyhad been nominated by the three main groups in the European Parliament (popular, social democrats and liberals) and was the clear favorite to win the award posthumously along with the movement that emerged after her death.

Prize worth 50,000 euros

The Sakharov Prize, worth 50,000 euros, rewards a extraordinary contribution to the protection of freedom of conscience and represents the maximum tribute paid by the European Union to the work in the field of human rights. Representatives of the movement will collect the award in a ceremony during the December plenary session in Strasbourg (France).

Amini’s death caused strong protests who for months called for the end of the Islamic Republic and only disappeared after a repression that caused 500 deaths, the arrest of at least 22,000 people and in which seven protesters were executed, one of them in public.

The Nicaraguans were finalists in this editions Vilma Núñez de Escorcia, director of the Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights, and monsignor Rolando José Álvarez Lagos, currently imprisoned for refusing to leave the country, who have fought for the rights of the population in their country against the regime of Daniel Ortega. Three women who fight for legal, safe and free abortion were also finalists: the Polish Justyna Wydrzynska, the Salvadoran Morena Herrera and the American Colleen McNichols.