World
Roses are placed on February 28, 2016 at the plaque marking the site where Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme was shot and killed 30 years ago in the center of Stockholm. Photo: Jonathan Nackstrand/AFP
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Three women from Ukraine, Iran, and Turkey won Sweden’s Olof Palme human rights prize on Monday for promoting peace and honoring women’s rights and freedoms.
Ukraine’s Marta Chumalo, Iran’s Narges Mohammadi, and Kurdish lawyer Eren Keskin from Turkey were congratulated and awarded “for their efforts in the fight to secure women’s freedom, in an age when human rights are threatened by war, violence, and oppression,” reads a statement by the Olof Palme Memorial Fund.
Keskin, the co-chair of Turkey’s leading Human Rights Association (IHD), has spent much of her life advocating for human rights in Turkey, including the rights of “ethnic minorities, LGBTQI+ people, and refugees.”
“She has been subjected to accusations and death threats, as well as hundreds of prosecutions. She has also been imprisoned for her beliefs, with Amnesty International declaring her a prisoner of conscience,” the fund said.
Journalist and human rights activist Mohammadi has dedicated the bulk of her efforts to struggling for women’s rights and freedom of speech in Iran and has also served numerous jail sentences.
According to the fund, Mohammadi has been incarcerated in Tehran’s notorious Evin prison since November 2021 for “propaganda activity against the state.”
Chumalo, a gender expert and psychologist, was commended for being one of the founders of the “Women’s Perspectives” center, which advocates for women’s rights and campaigns against women violence.
“Since 2014, and especially since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Marta Chumalo has been heavily involved in raising awareness about the effects of the war, and in addressing the needs of its victims,” the fund said.
The Olof Palme Prize is an annual prize worth $100,000 and is awarded by the Olof Palme Memorial Fund. It is awarded in memory of Olof Palme, Sweden’s Social Democratic prime minister who was assassinated in Stockholm in 1986.
An award ceremony for the recipients will be held in Stockholm on February 1.
Ukraine’s Marta Chumalo, Iran’s Narges Mohammadi, and Kurdish lawyer Eren Keskin from Turkey were congratulated and awarded “for their efforts in the fight to secure women’s freedom, in an age when human rights are threatened by war, violence, and oppression,” reads a statement by the Olof Palme Memorial Fund.
Keskin, the co-chair of Turkey’s leading Human Rights Association (IHD), has spent much of her life advocating for human rights in Turkey, including the rights of “ethnic minorities, LGBTQI+ people, and refugees.”
“She has been subjected to accusations and death threats, as well as hundreds of prosecutions. She has also been imprisoned for her beliefs, with Amnesty International declaring her a prisoner of conscience,” the fund said.
Journalist and human rights activist Mohammadi has dedicated the bulk of her efforts to struggling for women’s rights and freedom of speech in Iran and has also served numerous jail sentences.
According to the fund, Mohammadi has been incarcerated in Tehran’s notorious Evin prison since November 2021 for “propaganda activity against the state.”
Chumalo, a gender expert and psychologist, was commended for being one of the founders of the “Women’s Perspectives” center, which advocates for women’s rights and campaigns against women violence.
“Since 2014, and especially since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Marta Chumalo has been heavily involved in raising awareness about the effects of the war, and in addressing the needs of its victims,” the fund said.
The Olof Palme Prize is an annual prize worth $100,000 and is awarded by the Olof Palme Memorial Fund. It is awarded in memory of Olof Palme, Sweden’s Social Democratic prime minister who was assassinated in Stockholm in 1986.
An award ceremony for the recipients will be held in Stockholm on February 1.
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