The author Salman Rushdie and the director Barbara Miller received the Swiss Freethinker Award 2019 in the full Rothausbar in Zurich this Friday evening.

Rushdie and Miller deserve the prize for their artistic work and their advocacy to an enlightened world, for upholding humanistic values and for defending the freedom of art and expression. "I feel very honored and I would like to dedicate this award to the women from my films. They would not have been possible without their courage," said Barbara Miller when she accepted the award. Salman Rushdie underlined the purpose of art to tell the truth. "In an age of lies which I think is the age we live in, paradoxically, it may be a valuable thing, to have literature around, trying desperately to tell the truth", the author said. 

The award ceremony was broadcast via livestream on free-thought.ch and is now available on YouTube:

(Conversation with Barbara Miller from 08:04, with Salman Rushdie from 35:01)

In her two films Forbidden Voices and #Female Pleasure, director Barbara Millerhas let women speak who have been oppressed or even abused by governments or religious communities. Both films played a major role in making these women and their stories known to the general public.

Salman Rushdie's stories inspire us to contemplate, through his novel characters we are invited to think critically about how the world works and we experience the difficulties individuals face, who are torn back and forth between cultures with different value systems. Repeatedly he also takes on the grotesque sides of religious convictions in his stories.

The Swiss Freethinker Award 
The Freethinker Award, endowed with a total of 10,000 Swiss francs, is awarded every two years and will be awarded for the third time this year. It honours the work and commitment of activists, writers and artists to a humanist and open society. In 2017, Iranian-born Masih Alinejad and her organisation My Stealthy Freedom as well as the Kurdish painter and journalist Zehra Doğan, who at the time was imprisoned in Turkey, were honoured. In 2015 the award was given to the three Saudi citizens Ensaf Haidar, Raif Badawi and Waleed Abulkhair. 

About us 
The Swiss Freethinkers (free-thought.ch) promote secular-humanistic ethics, in which human rights play a central role. They are committed to the concerns of people without religious beliefs and represent a scientifically plausible world view.

Salman Rushdie read from his new book Quichotte on the same evening at the Volkshaus.

Barbara Miller will also be our guest on Sunday, 17 November to discuss #Female Pleasure, its effects and her latest project with us. 4.15 p.m. Cinema Stüssihof, 8001 Zurich, film screening, followed by a conversation with the director.