At the beginning of March, Taisia Bekbulatova started frantically buying plane tickets. Russia had just passed a law against anyone producing "fake" news about its "special operation" in Ukraine: in other words, telling the truth about the invasion. Rather than risk her colleagues going to prison, Taisia was determined to get them out of the country.

"When it became apparent that Russia could declare martial lawThe temporary suspension of civil law and its replacement with direct military control of society and its institutions., people - not just journalists - panicked and started fleeing the country," she explained.¹ "Because of this, the cost of tickets skyrocketed. We started buying tickets for our staff to any place that we could find tickets to."  

Taisia has been a thorn in the side of the Putin regime since launching the online magazine Holod Media in 2019. Her home was raided by the police, and at the end of last year she was labelled a "foreign agent". She was forced to escape to Georgia, where she now runs Holod Media from TbilisiThe capital of Georgia, at the crossroads between Europe and Asia. .

Taisia is one of three women shortlisted for The Day's Person of the Year award. We believe they deserve to be celebrated for their amazing contributions to our mission: "Build a better world."

The US magazine Time came up with the idea of a Person of the Year in 1927. It began with Charles Lindbergh, the first person to fly solo across the Atlantic.

Since then, most of the choices have been politicians, from Winston ChurchillThe British prime minister during World War Two, and later from 1951 to 1955. to Barack ObamaThe Democrat US president between 2008 and 2016.. But there have also been entrepreneurs like Elon MuskA South African-born entrepreneur whose companies have included the online payment service PayPal. and campaigners like Greta ThunbergA teenage climate activist who inspired a mass environmental movement by schoolchildren in 2018, when she was just 15 years old. She has since spoken at the UN and been nominated twice for the Nobel Peace Prize..

This year Time chose Ukrainian president Volodymyr ZelenskyZelensky won more than 73% of the vote to become Ukrainian President in April 2019. Incredibly, he once starred in a satirical drama in which his character accidentally wins the Ukrainian presidency., a leader who has "galvanised the world in a way we haven't seen for decades".

The Day's shortlist is unusual in consisting entirely of women. The reason? There were so many amazing women on our longlist that we decided three women should be put forward for the final vote.

Marie Christina Kolo was nominated for her environmental campaigning. In 2015 her organisation Indian Ocean Climate Network organised the first climate-change protest march in her native MadagascarAn island country in the Indian Ocean. .

The following year she founded Green N Kool, which sells eco-friendly products and builds playgrounds from recycled materials. She also campaigns against sexism and ageism, and has clashed with the Madagascar government over its failure to address them. She has highlighted her country's problems to the rest of the world by speaking at the UNUnited Nations. An intergovernmental organisation based in New York that aims to maintain international peace and security. and COP27The 2022 United Nations Climate Change Conference, known as the Conference of the Parties (COP). .

Mahsa Amini was a 22-year-old Kurdish woman who died in September after being arrested by Iran's religious police for not wearing the hijab properly. The government claimed she had died of natural causes, but witnesses reported that she had been brutally beaten in detention.

Within hours of her death, protests against Iran's oppressive regime began to spread across the country. They have continued ever since. The inscription on Mahsa's tomb reads: "Your name will become a rallying cry" - and so it has proved.  

Taisia Bekbulatova: It takes incredible bravery for anyone in Russia to stand up to the government. She personifies the spirit of independent journalism, and has shown huge determination in keeping Holod Media going.    

Marie Christina Kolo: Highlighting the effect of climate change on poorer countries is a vital part of the fight to save our planet. She has been a dauntless campaigner for the environment, women and old people.   

Mahsa Amini: Although she was not an activist herself, her death has had extraordinarily wide consequences. The protests are the biggest Iran has seen for years, and could spell the end of the current regime.