Frankfurt am Main (d.de) – The Iranian-American journalist, author and women’s rights activist Masih Alinejad will be awarded the European Paulskirche Prize for Democracy today (Tuesday).
For years, Alinejad has been fighting for human rights and women’s rights in Iran. In May 2014 she published a photo of herself without a headscarf, which sparked a protest and online movement. She launched the campaign “My Stealthy Freedom” to encourage women to show themselves online without a headscarf – despite this being a criminal offence in Iran. Alinejad has been living in exile since 2009.
Today she is considered one of the most important voices in the Iranian freedom movement. In an interview with German TV news programme Tagesschau, Alinejad said it was better “to live with dignity and to have a mission”. In addition, she stressed: “I love democracy.”
In establishing the European Paulskirche Prize for Democracy, the city of Frankfurt is commemorating the Paulskirche (St. Paul’s Church) and its importance as the “cradle of German democracy”, as that is where the first elected German parliament convened in 1848.
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