Iranian journalist Masih Alinejad. Facebook/masihalinejad
New Delhi: Journalist Masih Alinejad has always been vocal against Iran’s compulsory hijab law despite not being able to visit the Islamic Republic for over a decade.
Masih received the Oxi Courage Award. The event was also attended virtually by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Masih said, “I didn’t accept the Oxi Courage Award to say “No to the Islamic Republic.” Iranians do that by chanting “Death to the Dictator” in the streets of Iran. I accepted it to say “No” to the western countries who still recognize the legitimacy of this regime.”
Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish Iranian, was pronounced dead on 16 September after she was detained for allegedly breaching rules requiring women to wear hijab headscarves and modest clothes, sparking Iran’s biggest wave of popular unrest in almost three years.
Solidarity rallies with Iranian women — who have defiantly burnt the hijabs they have been obliged to wear since the 1979 Islamic revolution — have been held worldwide, with demonstrations in more than 150 cities over the weekend.
In Iran itself, clashes between protesters and security forces have rocked cities nationwide for over a month after they first flared in western regions home to Amini and Iran’s Kurdish minority.
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