Iranian human rights activist Shiva Nazar-Ahari has been nominated for the annual Reporters Without Borders Netizen Award.
The Human Rights Reporters Committee writes that Nazar-Ahari is one of nine reporters, bloggers and cyber space activists nominated for the 2013 Netizen Award, which will be awarded by Reporters Without Borders and Google on March 12 to mark the World Day Against Cyber-Censorship.
Shiva Nazar-Ahari has been arrested on several occasions by Islamic Republic authorities for her human rights activities.
She was last arrested in December of 2009, along with a group of political activists travelling to Qom to attend the funeral of dissident cleric Ayatollah Montazeri. She was held in solitary for more than two months and went on a hunger strike to protest against her situation. She was released on bail after nine months and was later sentenced to four years in jail for “enmity against God, propaganda against the regime and illegal assembly with the aim of disturbing national security.”
In September of 2013, she reported to Evin Prison to serve her sentence.
Other nominees for this year’s Netizen Award are: Itsmania Pineda Platero (Honduras), Cheikh Fall (Senegal), Oumarou Mohamed Lamine (Mali), Suren Gazaryan (Russia), Murat Tungishbayev (Kazakhstan), Huynh Ngoc Chenh (Vietnam) and Mosireen (Egypt).
This year, for the first time, the winner of the Netizen Award will be selected by people in the internet community, who are invited to cast their votes online.
