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By Ava Homa (who received the award on his behalf):
Muhammad Seddigh Kaboudvand,
The International Center for Human Rights (ICHR) has awarded the 2014 Human Rights Prize to Muhammad Seddigh Kaboudvand, a Kurdish Journalist serving a ten-and-a-half year sentence in Evin Prison. Kaboudvand, an adopted member of PEN International was also named the international journalist of the year at the British Press Award in 2009.
Please help publicize the award to attract attention to the situation of this and other Kurdish political prisoners in Iran. At the moment 27 Kurdish prisoners are on hunger strikes. Their lives are in danger from the threats they have been receiving from the authorities, as well as the physical situation they are in due to the lengthy hunger strike.
Since Kaboudvand could not be present in the award ceremony, I received the award on his behalf as a writer and activist.
Ava Homa accepts the award on Kaboudvand’s behalf
Kaboudvand’s message in English:
Ladies and Gentlemen,
The rights of the Kurds are sometimes distinguished from the rights and demands of the Iranians. This categorizations has been used to justify the continuous crackdowns, restrictions, exclusion, and all other forms of social and political oppressions against Kurds. The same theory is used to punish the members of Human Rights Organization of Kurdistan: These activists are deemed criminals because in addition to defending the rights of the Iranians, they defend the right of the Kurds.
But away from any nationalistic or ethnic bias and sentiment, I believe that Kurds in Iran are denied their basic human rights, the right to dignity, to equality, and to freedom. Kurds, like any other nation, are entitled to freely run their own social and political affairs in a democratic manner. I firmly believe Kurds deserve the right to freely choose sovereignty without external compulsions. This is a right that is valued and supported by all the civilized societies. In an authoritarian state, however, lawful and unlawful forces continues to deny Kurds equal rights. Any awakened conscience would find this situation unacceptable and would not stay silent. But, here, a protest to such unjust is severely penalized.
I thank The International Centre for Human Rights to have considered my work worthy of praise
Sincerely,
Mohammad Seddigh Kaboudvand
Evin Prison
