Both women have made and continue to make a tremendous commitment to personal freedom, especially women's freedom. Masih Alinejad does this by encouraging women in Iran to oppose anti-woman religious rules. As an artist and journalist, Zehra Doğan deals with war, grievances in society and violence against women.

From 2014 on, Masih Alinejad invited Iranian women to show themselves without hijab on the Facebook page My Stealthy Freedom, in order to to emphasise that it must be a personal decision whether a woman wanted to cover her hair or not. Countless women have since sent in photo or video portraits of themselves and thus encourage other women to rebel against religious rules, which are particularly directed against women. Masih Alinejad now lives in New York and works for the Persian edition of Voice of America, among others.

Zehra Doğan is in prison in Turkey because she drew attention to the conditions in the city of Nusaybin, which is mostly inhabited by Kurds, with a picture and a story. Due to the conflict between the Turkish army and the PKK, the city was banned from going out for five months. She illustrated with an online divided picture the degree of destruction by operations of Turkish military and illuminated the fate of a ten-year-old boy in an article. She quoted him with these words: "We are hearing shots. When they gain weight, we run home, when the tanks leave, we go out into the streets and make noise to protest. I think we're right. I know that one day our voices will be heard." Both were accused of terrorist propaganda. She has served a 17-month sentence since June 2017. Although she is refused painting utensils, she continues to produce pictures: she uses packaging materials, coffee, bird feathers that she finds in the courtyard and the like.

Andreas Kyriacou, President of the Swiss Freethinkers Association, explained the decision to honour the two women:

Through exchanges with other humanist organisations, we know of many people who are fighting under the most difficult conditions for human rights, freedom of speech and the arts and for a more humane world. One of the reasons we chose Masih and Zehra is because their work not only draws attention to the violence and repression of oppressive regimes, but also because the two have found many artistic ways of denouncing these abuses and encourage others to rebel against them.

Ensaf Haidar, one of the three winners of the 2015 Freethinker Prize, described the two women as two of their personal heroines and added a message of greeting:

I know Masih and as a woman who used to be forced to conceal her hair and face, I know how much it takes to rebel against the disguise commandment. Masih, Zehra and all the authors who work for individual freedoms and rebel against the religious establishment need our support and our attention.

 

The award ceremony took place at the end of the science and humanism festival Denkfest in Zurich which the freethinkers had founded. On behalf of Masih Alinejad, her fellow campaigner and human rights lawyer Leila Alikarami, who lives in England, accepted the prize. In her acceptance speech, she explained why My Stealthy Freedom consciously makes the issue of the many forms of women's oppression in Iran a subject of coercion of disguise:

By giving priority to hijab encourages women to voice their objection to compulsory hijab and challenge the government as well as society to recognise women’s control over their own body. Therefore, My Stealthy Freedom initial focus is on the most obvious symbol of oppression. If we cannot control how to cover our heads, how can we control what goes inside our heads.

Journalist Naz Oke and writer Lucie Renée Bourges were present for Zehra Doğan, both of whom are personally committed to her release. They read from messages they received from Zehra Doğan in prison. Passages such as the following show that even the arbitrary judiciary cannot get it down.

For someone with no reason to live, prison is hard, yes, very hard. But my will to live is great. That's why these walls seem more and more insignificant every day.

 The complete acceptance speeches can be read here:

The Freethinker Prize was awarded for the first time in 2015. It went to the three Saudi citizens Ensaf Haidar, Raif Badawi and Waleed Abulkhair. The award recognizes their courageous commitment to humanistic and secular values. The prize is now awarded every two years. The prize money of CHF 10,000 is financed through a heritage donation.

Bilder: Serkan Demirel