Bismillah
 
Saudi Attorney in Al-Timani Forced Divorce Case Nominated to Receive Award
 
International
Index Freedom of Expression Awards shortlist announced
       

The 7th annual Index on Censorship Freedom of Expression awards will be presented at LSO St. Luke's, London, on 14 March 2007

 
Source: http://www.indexonline.org/en/news/articles/2007/1/index-awards-shortlist-2007.shtml
 
February 27, 2007

The Annual Index on Censorship Freedom of Expression Awards has become a milestone in the human rights calendar. Each year we honor people who have made outstanding contributions, often heroic ones, to the defense of freedom of expression. Awards are given to those who achieved this by making films or writing books, through the law, or their journalism, or for whistle-blowing in environments that would deter most of us from the tiniest dissent.

 
This year’s awards will be presented by Anna Ford, with a keynote speech from Jung Chang, bestselling author of Mao: The Untold Story and Wild Swans.

The Nominees are:
 
The Bindman’s Law and Campaigns Award 2007

This award will be presented to campaigning human rights organisations or individual lawyers for their outstanding defence of freedom of expression.

• Yalemzewd Bekele (Ethiopia): Yalemzewd Bekele is a prominent human rights lawyer whose projects focus on civil society and women’s issues. Ethiopian authorities held Bekele for eight days in October. Amnesty International believed her to be at high risk of torture and mistreatment.

• Abdul-Rahman al Lahem (Saudi Arabia): Abdul-Rahman Al-Lahem seeks out high-profile cases that highlight the problems in Shariah law in Saudi Arabia. His major cases have confronted the treatment of rape victims, freedom of religious expression and homosexuality.
 
Media Coverage of Fatima and Mansour Al-Timani's Forced Divorce Case
http://muslimahwritersalliance.com/mwa-community/al-timani_case_chronology.htm 
 
Say 'No' to Forced Divorce - 'Yes' to Reforms Online Petition Drive
http://www.petitiononline.com/no24orce/petition.html
 
[Photo Credit: By Faiza Saleh Ambah - The Washington Post - Related Article: Saudi Lawyer Takes On Religious Court System, page A01]

• Stanislav Dmitrievsky and the Russian-Chechen Friendship Society (Russia): Director of the Russian-Chechen Friendship Society, Stanislav Dmitrievsky was issued a two-year suspended prison sentence and a four-year probation period for ‘inciting interethnic hatred by using the mass media’. The verdict leaves him vulnerable to imprisonment for minor infractions, including ones provoked by government agents.

• Siphiwe Hlophe (Swaziland. Nominated by David Blunkett): In 1999, Siphiwe Hlophe discovered she was HIV positive. As a result, her husband left her and she lost an academic scholarship, but she reacted by co-founding an organisation called Swazis for Positive Living which aims to fight gender discrimination related to HIV/Aids and help other HIV/Aids victims.
 
For more information on any of these stories or to arrange interviews please contact:

Henderson Mullin, Chief Executive, Index on Censorship
0207 278 2313 Henderson@indexoncensorship.org

or

Lindsay Grist, Grist Communications
07760 161699 lindsay@gristcommunications.com

Tickets to the London event are £100 per person or groups bookable at 10 tickets for £900. Proceeds go support Index on Censorship's work for freedom of expression.

To book tickets contact: Ade Lukes on 020 7278 2313 or ade@indexoncensorship.org


'Index’s role, which it has sustained admirably over so many years, is to excavate the real facts and expose the truth. Long may it continue!' - Harold Pinter.

Index on Censorship was founded in 1972 by the poet Stephen Spender in response to a plea for help from Soviet dissidents facing show trials in Moscow and was founded on the principle that freedom of expression is a fundamental human right.

 
EMAIL THE FOUNDERS OF
THE NATIONAL SOCIETY FOR HUMAN RIGHTS KINGDOM OF SAUDI ARABIA
AND ENCOURAGE THEM TO SUPPORT THIS YEAR'S NOMINEE
The Bindman’s Law and Campaigns Award 2007
 
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