Alice Teodorescu Måwe, Swedish member of the European Parliament, delivers her remarks as she presents the 2026 Geneva Summit Courage Award to Masih Alinejad on behalf of the heroes of Iran.
Full Prepared Remarks:
Excellencies, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen,
Thank you for this invitation. It is a great honour to stand here today at the Geneva Summit for Human Rights and Democracy — a place where courage is not only discussed,
but recognised and celebrated.
I have the privilege of presenting the 2026 Courage Award — a prize awarded each year by the thirty human rights organisations that co-sponsor this Summit — to recognise those who embody courage in the defence of freedom and human dignity.
Courage is not a natural state. It is not something you wake up with. It is added afterwards – once fear has finished writing the script and placed the final full stop.
Courage is a footnote.
A footnote to fear.
And to life.
The main text speaks of doubt. In it, all rational arguments not to act are stacked, one upon another. The footnote resists, reminding us of the possibility of doing the opposite. Courage is not the absence of fear. It is a movement over the edge.
So even when fear dictates and admonishes, it is courage that italicised addition at the bottom of the margin – that allows us to turn the page, and write history.
The brave Iranian people stand ready to leap. Leading the struggle against Islamist absolutism are the women; the controlled, the silenced, the erased. Each bearing the weight of lonely, uncomfortable, life-threatening courage. In Iran, courage is not shown by the one who speaks loudest, but by the one who no longer stays silent.
The history of humanity is not written by oppressors alone. It is also written by those who refuse to remain silent, to bow, to march in step. What we are witnessing may be a historic moment. But it is only in hindsight that we know with certainty when fear changes owners. When the roles reverse; when fear, almost unnoticed, leaves the masses and moves silently to the despot himself – who suddenly fears the very masses he once oppressed.
Then, in retrospect, one can often identify the spark that ignited the fire; the moment when the people finally find the strength to rise – fully aware that life itself is at stake. The moment when the despot realises reality has caught up, and there is no going back. When control evaporates. When the military and police join the people, when the facade finally crumbles. When walls are torn down, when people are reunited, when all that seemed impossible yesterday suddenly becomes real, inevitable, self-evident.
It is then we are reminded again that history can always take new, unforeseen paths. And that these paths are ultimately shaped by the courageous choices of frightened people. It is then we are reminded again that the logic of dictatorship – manifested in oppression, control and misery – is always at war with human nature and her innate longing for freedom.
Iranian women pose a threat to nearly half a century of Islamist oppression. A system built on the denial of freedom, on subjugation and on obedience. Where the female body is reduced to a battlefield, her hair to a crime scene, her clothing and free will to a moral test. The woman who shows her hair is deemed a threat to the very foundations of society. The woman who speaks freely is regarded as a security risk. And she who refuses to obey is punished as an enemy of the regime with death – the full stop to a life half-lived.
And yet – or perhaps precisely because of this – it is the women who have carried the struggle for freedom the furthest. “Woman. Life. Freedom.” Three words. One revolution. Tonight’s laureate is one of those who has paid the highest price. Masih Alinejad, whom the devil’s henchmen in Tehran have tried to murder three times, who is forced into an existence in the shadows, has not had the luxury of being vague, or the privilege of being neutral. When power demanded loyalty – you chose truth. When silence was offered as protection – you chose to speak. When fear’s monologue presented rational arguments, you chose courage’s footnote.
You are a reminder that freedom is not born of consensus or the diplomacy of comfort, but of conflict and taking a stand. That every step forward requires someone who dares to go first. It is an honour for me, personally, to present Masih Alinejad to you – not only to recognise your work, but to take a stand.
A stand for all Iranian women’s right to own their lives. Against Islamism’s claim to absolute power. For the principle that no state, religion or ideology ever stands above the individual human being.
History will remember those who excused the brutality and those who closed their ears to the Iranian tiger’s abyssal roar. But history will also remember those who stood up – when it was dangerous, lonely, and therefore essential.
Masih Alinejad, thank you for transforming fear into courage. For never compromising. Thank you for reminding the world what freedom costs – and why it is always worth its price.
I am very honoured now to invite Masih Alinejad to please come forward and receive the 2026 Courage Award, on behalf of the heroes of Iran.
