The M100 Media Award honours the Iranian “Women, Life, Freedom” movement | Shima Babaei accepted the award on behalf of the movement in Potsdam
Potsdam, 15 September 2023. Yesterday evening, the 19th M100 Sanssouci Colloquium ended with the presentation of the M100 Media Award at the Orangerieschloss Sanssouci in Potsdam. The high-profile European award was given to the Iranian “Women, Life, Freedom” movement, which started one year ago, on 16 September 2022, with the violent death of 22-year-old student Jina Mahsa Amini in police custody. The award honours the courageous women and girls, but also men, who protest against oppression and for freedom and human rights in their home countries. Iranian women’s rights activist Shima Babaei, who has been living in exile in Belgium since 2020, accepted the award on behalf of the movement.
“Today, with the M100 Media Award, we honour the ‘Woman, Life, Freedom’ movement in Iran, which, despite threats of violence and draconian punishments, stands up for women’s rights as they are taken for granted in the civilized world,” said Potsdam’s Lord Mayor Mike Schubert in his welcome of the approximately 160 invited international guests: “Let us take today’s award ceremony as an inspiration to continue to work together to promote equality, human rights and democracy everywhere in the world. The Iranian women’s movement, just like our own Potsdam history, shows us that the will to overcome obstacles is too strong for petrified and encrusted regimes, that it is possible to shape a better future for all.”
