Mersedeh Shahinkar has become one of the most recognizable and vocal advocates for democracy and an end to the Islamic Republic in Iran. She stepped into this role as a result of her own trauma and experiences during the Women, Life, Freedom protests in Iran, which erupted out of the September 2022 death-in-custody of Mahsa Jina Amini. Like thousands of other Iranians, Mersedeh took to the streets in protest following the death of Amini. In October 2022, while with her mother at a protest in Tehran, an Islamic Republic security officer shot a projectile that took out her eye. She became one of hundreds of survivors of intentional blinding in Iran. The image of her bloody face went viral, and her case had such a huge impact on social media that the regime considered her a threat and steadily began to harass her. After having her home ransacked by regime agents and receiving repeated threats, she fled to Germany with her 11-year-old daughter. Since then, she has been a tireless advocate for human rights and an end to gender apartheid in Iran. In December 2023, she was awarded the Sakharov Prize, the EU’s highest human rights honor, on behalf of the Woman Life Freedom movement. The following spring, she appeared before the UN Human Rights Council to support the extended mandate of the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Iran. She has appeared in countless high-level diplomatic meetings, interviews, and other programs, seeking to amplify the voices of Iranians in Iran.