PEGAH TASHAKKORI

Human Rights Award

A cry of rage. One that rises up loud and clear in the face of massacres. At the horrors of a regime that is a continuous and inhuman repression of all freedom. It is the cry unrestrained cry of Pegah Tashakkori. A voice that soars above every frequency, continuing to speak even when breath seems to run out. Because it springs from the conscience and, in the deafening silence of a land orphaned of justice, reverberates powerfully outside its borders. That of Pegah's is a battle at a distance, but no less incisive for that. A collective struggle against the established order, oblivion, indifference and resignation. In an outburst of disobedience that, today, translates into an act of love and kindness. When a veil becomes a prison, when even the importance of a symbol overrides that, sacred and inalienable, of our fundamental rights, rebellion is a symptom of hope. To return to feeling the wind in your hair. To live again.