Award honours slain journalist’s courage to ‘write and fight’

MUMBAI: Two fearless Asian women who have risked their lives campaigning against religious extremism — one of whom was murdered last month — won a joint award on Thursday for their common courage.

Gauri Lankesh ( pictured), 55, an outspoken Indian newspaper editor, was shot dead outside her home by unidentified assailants in the southern city of Bengaluru, at a time of rising nationalism and intolerance of dissent Pakistan. Lankesh, the editor and pubin the country. “This award is a morale lisher of a weekly Indian tabloid, was booster for people who want to write, a staunch critic of right-wing, political and fight,” Lankesh’s sister, Kavitha, said ideology. by phone. “It honours what Gauri stood Nearly 2,414 km away in Pakistan’s for — that you cannot silence me.” northern city of Peshawar, co-winner

Lankesh shared the annual Reach Ismail said she felt numb with grief All Women in WAR (RAW in WAR) when she heard about Landesh’s murAnna Politkovskayader.AwardwithGulalai Ismail, 31, a peace activist who “It was heartbreaking that an advohas faced death threats for speaking cate of democracy, a courageous voice out against the Taliban in northwest was silenced,” she said by phone from Peshawar. “This award recognises our common struggle and courage.”

Ismail co-founded the advocacy group Aware Girls when she was 16 to challenge violence and oppression of women in northwest Pakistan. She also trains young peace activists in democracy to counter militant radicalisation.

Ismail has been threatened with violence on social media, for speaking out against extremism and accused of atheism. “My home has been attacked twice,” she said, describing how four armed gunmen tried to force their way into her home when she was delayed at the airport. “I have been branded a traitor.”

The award marks the 11th anniversary of the killing of Politkovskaya, a Russian investigative reporter who uncovered state corruption and rights abuses, especially in Chechnya.

She was shot dead in the lobby of her Moscow apartment block at the age of 48 on October 7, 2006.

RAW in WAR, a London-based, non-governmental organisation supporting women human rights defenders and victims of war, also honoured Rohingya refugee Jamalida Begum who spoke out publicly about her rape by Myanmar security forces.