Shaparak Shajarizadeh has seen her share of controversy. The 44-year-old Iranian activist is probably best known for her part in the country's anti-compulsory headscarf protests in 2018. Shajarizadeh was repeatedly arrested for removing her head covering - called a hijab - in public and waving it on the end of a stick during the wide-spread women's rights protests. Now the activist is calling on Iranians to boycott the upcoming parliamentary elections.

Shajarizadeh traveled to Switzerland to receive the 2020 Geneva Summit International Women's Rights Award and explained why she has decided to boycott the elections. "The Iranian people lost their hopes... I was among those who had some hopes. But now it is like choosing between bad and worse," she told AFP. 

Many moderate candidates have been barred from participating in Iran's elections this year, which has had critics up in arms.

Shajarizadeh fled Iran immediately after she was released on bail following the country's courts handing down a two-year prison term and an eighteen-year suspended sentence for her part in the 2018 protests. She fled on foot from Iran to Turkey over the mountains which divide the two countries. She now lives with her husband and son in Toronto, Canada. Other women who took part in the 2018 protests are still serving prison sentences.