This year's finalists for the Sakharov Prize, the European Parliament's top rights prize, include Mahsa Amini and the Iranian protest movement "Women, Life, Freedom", which she inspired after her death at age 22.
The selection was made "in recognition of their brave effort to stand up for women's rights," EU Parliament foreign affairs committee chair David McAllister stated on October 12.
Three days after being arrested for a purported hijab violation, Amini passed away in police custody in Tehran in September 2022.
Protests began after she was killed and quickly grew into a movement to topple Iran's Islamic theocracy, which has been in place for four decades.
Activists claim the authorities responded with a violent crackdown, killing over 500 people and arbitrarily detaining over 22,000.
Two Nicaraguan rights activists and three women who have battled for abortion rights in Poland, El Salvador, and the United States round up the list of finalists for the 2023 Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought.
