Cuba's ''Ladies in White,'' a group of wives of jailed dissidents, won the European parliament's 2005 Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought.

BY FRANCES ROBLES

The ladies wear white and march in protest down Havana's Fifth Avenue, flowers in hand.

Sometimes, bystanders hurl insults at these women who dare to defy. They are the ''Ladies in White,'' formed two years ago to demand the release of their husbands, political prisoners in a country where speaking out against the government is a subversive act worth 25 years in prison.

On Wednesday, Cuba's Damas de Blanco were one of three winners of the European Union's 2005 Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought, considered one of Europe's most prestigious human rights awards. The prize underscores the emerging international significance of a group of ladies -- housewives -- who take to the street every Sunday after church. They are reminiscent of Argentina's Madres de Plaza de Mayo, who started quiet marches in downtown Buenos Aires looking for their missing kids and wound up a major human rights organization.

''Let me say that we're not an organization, but women, wives, mothers and sisters who united,'' said Gisela Delgado, whose husband Héctor Palacios is serving a 25-year sentence. ``It's the first time in 47 years that women in Cuba go out to the street to protest against unjust imprisonment.''

The Ladies in White formed in March 2003 after the Cuban government launched a sudden sweep against dissidents nationwide. Seventy-five people were arrested for crimes such as independent journalism and running private libraries.

The wives had nowhere to turn, so they turned to each other. They gathered on Sundays at St. Rita church to discuss brief, sporadic jailhouse visits and the appalling conditions their husbands faced. Soon those weekly meetings developed into regular peaceful protests on Fifth Avenue.

Their homes were ransacked. They were threatened. On Palm Sunday last year, the pro-government Federation of Cuban Women heckled them.

''The ladies in white continue to campaign despite attempts to silence them,'' the European Parliament said in a statement on its web site. ``International support for their cause has been extensive.''

The European parliament passed a resolution in support of the imprisoned men last year and approved sanctions against Cuba. The measures were lifted in January, but relations between the EU and Cuba are still strained.

The Cuban government had no immediate public reaction to the prize.

The Sakharov award, named after a Soviet dissident, has special political significance for nations that enjoy relations with the EU, said Lucie Morrillon, U.S. spokeswoman for Paris-based Reporters Without Borders, an international press freedom group that also won Wednesday.

''I'm glad we won, and I'm also glad we have to share it,'' she said. ``We dedicate this to the 110 jailed journalists throughout the world.''

Of them, 23 are in Cuba, she said.

''It's an honor, not for us, but for our husbands,'' said Lady in White Elsa González Padrón, whose husband, Víctor Rolando Arroyo, is one of the jailed journalists. ``Ladies in White was a spontaneous movement by women who united in pain, a situation the government provoked by jailing our husbands.''

Cuban women have always played an important role in political history, said Uva de Aragón, assistant director of Florida International University's Cuban Research Institute.

They shaved their heads to protest Spanish colonization and fought against presidents Gerardo Machado and Fulgencio Batista. But never, de Aragón said, did women gather in groups and fight back against Fidel Castro -- especially in public -- before now. ''I think they are counting on the international community and that this is a machista regime that respects women,'' she said. ``These are women, dressed in white, with a flower in their hands. It's a powerful statement which is difficult for the regime to deal with.''

The women will split $50,000 euros ($60,290) with Reporters Without Borders and Nigerian lawyer Hauwa Ibrahim, who represents women who face being stoned to death for adultery.