It’s given the Right Livelihood Award to Sima Samar, an Afghan, and a high-profile opponent of the burqa.
Swedish-German philatelist Jakob von Uexkull founded the donor-funded prize in 1980 after the Nobel Foundation behind the Nobel Prizes refused to create awards honouring efforts in the fields of the environment and international development.
For this reason, the Right Livelihood Award Foundation oftens calls its distinction the “alternative Nobel prize.”
Through laws like the one in France, and through high-profile awards like this one, the woman- (and child-) smothering burqa gradually assumes its place as an artifact of the past.
September 30th, 2012 at 1:32AM
Bravo to Sima Samar! I may be your only reader who has actually tried on a burqua – I’ve got my mother-in-law’s up in the attic. It doesn’t feel like an article of clothing that you wear, more like a tent that you step in to. I wore it for less than 5 minutes and it was miserable! My mother-in-law gave it up as soon as she arrived in Israel in 1957.
October 1st, 2012 at 7:12AM
janet: I’ve read a number of accounts of what it’s like to wear the burqa. Truly miserable.