This year's Sakharov Prize has been posthumously awarded to Mahsa Amini, who died last year in the custody of morality police, sparking the greatest ever challenge to the Iranian regime.

The prize is awarded by the European Parliament to individuals and groups for defending freedom of thought and human rights.

EU Parliament President Roberta Metsola said that 22-year-old Amini's death "marked a turning point," the Women, Life, Freedom uprising which followed, posing the gravest challenge to the regime since it came to power in 1979.

Arrested for not wearing her hijab properly, Amini was found to have been dealt severe blows to the head, though the regime never acknowledged responsibility nor brought the culprits to justice.

"It has triggered a women-led movement that is making history," Metsola said, adding that the movement stood for "dignity and freedom in Iran."

She said that the award was a tribute to the brave women, men and young people of Iran who are leading the push for change in a revolution which has seen the deaths of hundreds in the hands of brutal regime security forces and tens of thousands more arrested.

Amini hailed from the predominantly Kurdish city of Saqez in western Iran.

The Sakharov prize is named in honor of Soviet physicist, political dissident and 1975 Nobel Peace Prize laureate Andrei Sakharov.

Last year, the Sakharov Prize was awarded to the Ukrainian people for protecting democracy, freedom and rule of law following Russia's invasion which continues to today.