Press Release

PROMINENT IRANIAN HUMAN RIGHTS LAWYER, NASRIN SOTOUDEH,
WINS 2023 CIVIL COURAGE PRIZE

September 18, 2023
10/24 tribute to Iran’s resilient women’s rights movement in Sotoudeh’s honor
Video remarks by Margaret Atwood, Christiane Amanpour, Nicholas Kristof

New York, NY – Nasrin Sotoudeh, one of Iran’s most prominent human rights lawyers and outspoken defender of women’s rights, will receive the annual Civil Courage Prize in absentia on Tuesday, October 24. Sotoudeh has garnered international attention for representing women arrested for peacefully protesting the compulsory hijab law.

Sotoudeh has repeatedly called for the abolition of the death penalty and spoken out against the unjust execution of minors, religious and ethnic minorities, as well as protesters. Her clients have also included Nobel Peace Prize laureate Shirin Ebadi, Iranian pro-democracy activist Heshmat Tabarzadi, as well as numerous journalists and politicians. Sotoudeh has received the European Parliament's Sakharov Prize, PEN America's Freedom to Write Award, and the Right Livelihood Award.

She has been frequently imprisoned, including in solitary confinement, since 2010, and in March 2019 she was sentenced to a total of 38 years in prison and 148 lashes for several national security-related offenses. During the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, Sotoudeh went on a hunger strike to protest the detention of political prisoners amid abysmal conditions in Iranian prisons.

In July 2021 she was granted medical furlough, and has remained at home under conditional release after a 46-day hunger strike led to her severely deteriorating condition and continues to impact her health.

Along with the 10/24 medal ceremony in her honor, a symposium entitled Iran: Women, Law and the Dream of Justice will highlight Sotoudeh’s groundbreaking work and the resilient women’s rights movement in the country.

Supporters of Sotoudeh including author Margaret Atwood, who has famously explored topics of gender and nationhood; Christiane Amanpour, Chief International Anchor for CNN and host of CNN International's nightly interview program Amanpour; Nicholas Kristof, The New York Times op-ed columnist; and European Parliament member Hannah Neumann will offer remarks via video.

Panel participants will include: Javaid Rehman, UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran; Haleh Esfandiari, Wilson Center, Director Emerita and Distinguished Fellow, Middle East Program; Amir Soltani, writer, filmmaker, and human rights activist. Philip Alston, the John Norton Pomeroy Professor of Law, NYU School of Law, will moderate the conversation.

Sotoudeh is the subject of a documentary NASRIN, a clip of which will be presented at the 10/24 event, with an introduction by the producers Jeff Kaufman and Marcia Ross. Filmed in Iran by women and men who risked arrest to make the film, NASRIN is an immersive portrait of the 2023 Civil Courage Prize laureate.

The Train Foundation has awarded the Civil Courage Prize since 2000. Recipients have played leading roles in resisting evil and injustice at great personal risk. The late John Train drew inspiration for the founding of the prize from his association with Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. As John Train explained, “Trying to think of a name for the virtue that Solzhenitsyn so splendidly exemplified, I realized there wasn't one in English, so I proposed ‘Civil Courage,’ as distinct from martial valor.” The 2022 Civil Courage Prize laureate is the Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny.

To attend the 10/24 Civil Courage Prize Ceremony and Symposium at New York University as a member of the media, please contact Barbara Becker at civilcourageprize@gmail.com

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