Mahsa Amini and Elon Musk nominated for the Sakharov Prize

Mahsa Amini, who became the symbol of the movement of Iranian women against the wearing of the veil after her death in 2022, and Elon Musk are among the personalities proposed Wednesday for the Sakharov Prize, the EU’s highest distinction for human rights.

The three main political groups in the European Parliament, the European People’s Party (EPP, right), the Socialists and Democrats (S&D) and Renew Europe (centrists and liberals) proposed to award this prize rewarding the defense of freedom of thought to Mahsa Amini and the “Woman, Life, Liberty” movement, triggered by her death. This nomination is therefore a favorite.

Announcement made in October

The 22-year-old Iranian Kurd died on September 16, 2022, after her arrest by the moral police for allegedly violating the strict dress code imposed on women in Iran. The winner of the prize will be announced in October, and the award ceremony will take place during the plenary session of the European Parliament in Strasbourg in December.

The Identity and Democracy group (ID, far right), which includes the National Rally (France), the Lega (Italy) and the AfD (Germany), for its part submitted the name of Elon Musk, controversial boss of X (formerly Twitter).

The billionaire, who advocates a radical vision of freedom of expression, has shaken up the content moderation policy on this social network, in particular by reinstating the accounts of personalities who had been banned, such as former American president Donald Trump . Other nominations for the 2023 Sakharov Prize include “the pro-European people of Georgia and Nino Lomjaria, former Georgian Public Defender”, proposed by the Eurosceptic conservatives ECR.

“For freedom of spirit”

Or the Ugandan climate activist Vanessa Nakate, and “the women who fight for free, safe and legal abortion (the Polish Justyna Wydrzynska, the Salvadoran Morena Herrera and the American Colleen McNichols)”, two proposals respectively emanating from the Greens and the radical left (GUE group).

Awarded for the first time in 1988, this prize “for freedom of thought” owes its name to the nuclear physicist Andreï Sakharov, a great figure of dissidence during the USSR era.

(AFP)Show comments