Sakharov Human Rights Prize Awarded to Jina Mahsa Amini
Photo: Demonstrations against the Iranian Regime reach Washington DC in October 2022. AP Photo/ Jose Luis Magana.
The European Parliament posthumously presented the Sakharov Human Rights Prize for Freedom of Thought to Jina Mahsa Amini. The award acknowledged her role as a pivotal martyr in the Iranian Uprising of 2022. Her death stirred Iraninto a new attempt at protesting the current repressive theocracy that enforced hijab wearing, among other restrictions for women. The protests became the largest eruption of civil unrest since the 1979 Iranian Revolution that toppled the Shah monarchy and established the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Amini was a 22-year-old Kurdish-Iranian woman who was arrested by the Gasht-e Ershad (morality police) upon visiting Tehran for violating the state-sanctioned mandatory headscarf law. This law was enacted after the 1979 Islamic Revolution and has been widely protested in the country.
Her death in police custody sparked renewed outrage amongst the Kurdish and wider Iranian community, particularly after eyewitnesses recalled that Amini was severely beaten in the patrol van. After suddenly collapsing in the detention center, she died in a three-day coma.
Official reports, however, attempted to censor her death, claiming she suffered from complications from a brain surgery she had 10 years prior. State coroners reported that she had “multiple organ failure caused by cerebral hypoxia.” Her family was prohibited from seeing her body. Her father stated that he “had no idea what they did to her.”
The European Parliament’s decision to nominate Amini continues the trend of acknowledging women’s important roles in their emancipation, particularly within the Middle East. Earlier this year, the Norwegian Nobel Committee awarded Iranian Narges Mohammadi the Peace Prize for her work fighting the oppression of women’s rights.
Women championed the protests in outrage towards Amini’s death. The “Mahsa Revolution”, as it came to be known, is considered by many as the first feminist counter revolutionary movement in the country. As part of this effort, women took to the streets in protest, removing their headscarves and risking their lives. An estimated 20,000 people were arrested in the aftermath of the demonstrations, and 500 people were killed. The average age of protestors was fifteen. However, the masses of women who joined spanned all ages and ethnic groups within Iran.
It is uncommon in history for entire movements to focus solely on women's rights. Instead, it is often universal plights fought for by women. The Iranian protests are unique because “this is not just an upheaval involving women, it is an upheaval about women and women’s freedom.” This sentiment is mirrored in recent global movements for reproductive rights, as seen in the 2020 All-Woman Polish Protests and the American post Roe v. Wade demonstrations.
Through the Sakharov Human Rights Prize, these struggles have been acknowledged. Among the shortlisted candidates were two women fighting to facilitate free and safe legal abortions. Poland’s Justyna Wydrzyńska was fundamental in helping women obtain abortions after the Polish Constitutional Court enacted the 2020 laws prohibiting the facilitation of abortions. American Colleen McNicholas was another nominee. As an obstetrician-gynecologist, she fought for patient care under Planned Parenthood and elucidated on the serious consequences of Roe v Wade.
Photo: Demonstrations in Krakow in solidarity with Joanna who was harassed by police for taking an illegal abortion pill. AP Photo/ Beata Zawrzel (NurPhoto via AP).
Awarding this prize brings new hope that the Mahsa movement will be reinvigorated after its 2023 suppression. Soon after protests slowed, the morality police returned, and harsher sentences were enforced for violations of Sharia dress laws, including a 10-year prison sentence.
The Sakharov Prize has continuously operated to award those who contribute towards social freedoms and human rights, and the implications of this are global. Protection of women’s rights will continue to gain more validity as governments understand that “freedom in a globalized world is an issue of international importance.”