An international coalition of 25 human rights organizations today presented a prestigious international women’s rights award to Shaparak Shajarizadeh, a prominent Iranian women’s rights activist who was jailed, beaten and brutalized for removing her headscarf in public.
The Iranian activist became a leader in the “Girls of Revolution Street” and White Wednesday civil disobedience movements. In February 2018, she was famously arrested for removing her hijab in defiance of Iran’s compulsory law. That year, Shajarizadeh was named by BBC as one of the 100 most inspiring and influential women around the world.
Shajarizadeh received the 2020 Geneva Summit International Women’s Rights Award at a ceremony in the Swiss city today, where she addressed UN diplomats, human rights activists, and journalists from around the world attending the 12th annual Geneva Summit for Human Rights and Democracy.