Mirzakhani was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2013. In 2016, the cancer spread to her bones and liver, and she died on 14 July 2017 at the age of 40 at Stanford Hospital in Stanford, California.

Maryam Mirzakhani left Iran to pursue her advanced mathematical studies in the US. She would have gone to Baghdad to do so if she were born one thousand years ago – and she would have probably gone to Beijing if she were born just a couple of decades from now.

Maryam Mirzakhani has made striking and highly original contributions to geometry and dynamical systems. Her work on Riemann surfaces and their moduli spaces bridges several mathematical disciplines—hyperbolic ge- ometry, complex analysis, topology, and dynamics—and influences them all in return.

A champion of equality and women's rights The Nobel Peace Prize for 2023 was awarded to the imprisoned Iranian human rights advocate Narges Mohammadi. More than 20 years of fighting for women's rights made her a symbol of freedom and standard-bearer in the struggle against the Iranian theocracy.