Amran Abdundi is an activist who, through various channels, has worked to make life safer in northeastern Kenya – supporting women who are vulnerable to rape, female circumcision and murder. Despite death threats, Abdundi’s Frontier Indigenous Network (FIN) has set up shelters along the dangerous border between Kenya and Somalia, an area where militant terrorist groups pose a threat to many. Alongside these shelters, FIN also maps out conflict areas, targets the illegal arms trade which fuels local conflict and has set up radio listening groups. As a way of reaching women in remote areas, these circles help to dispel myths about tuberculosis treatment and female property ownership, and to tackle doctrines spread by the area’s terror organisations. She is the recipient of the 2015 Index on Censorship Freedom of Expression Award for Campaigning.
I want to thank the judges who selected me for this award after going through so many worthwhile and wonderful nominations that were submitted from around the world. Equally I want to thank Index on Censorship’s staff. I will be eternally indebted to you all.
This award goes to marginalised women of northern Kenya whom I have worked with closely for the last ten years and who have joined hands with me in fighting outdated cultural practices that deny them the right to own property, expose them to dangerous practices like FGM, and threaten them with sexual exploitation.
Women’s rights activist Amran Abdundi (Photo: Alex Brenner for Index on Censorship)
The award also goes to conflict concubines who were abducted by armed youths in the height of armed violence in northern Kenya and acted as comfort women for armed militias. When these women came back from conflict zones with children born out of wedlock, they were rejected by their families. This award is for them.
Society rejected them and they live in separate makeshift areas outside normal settlement areas in northern Kenya. Working together with the conflict concubines we engaged various stakeholders — women leaders, elders, local government officials, cultural leaders and youths in order to open a dialogue. This led to partial acceptance by the community in accommodating them. I am still working in engaging the stakeholders to fully accept them and still hope to integrate the conflict concubines in mainstream society.
This award also goes to women who through my organizational campaign are today enjoying their constitutional right to own property, land and livestock. This is contrary to past practice when all lands, livestocks and properties acquired by women was registered in name of their husbands. Or if the woman was single or widowed, her brother or father’s name. Our campaign and advocacy managed to break that outdated cultural practice.
The award also goes to women victims of armed violence perpetrated by terrorist groups, community militias and gangs along the Kenya/Somalia border. Thugs who have used their armed power to attack, rape, gang rape and block women fleeing droughts from reaching Dadaab refugee camp in northern Kenya. We used our loud speakers to confront the attackers and we documented the abuses along the border.
I have done all these things not to win any award or recognition but because of a grave reality on the ground. A horror which moved me to join hands with other women and form a woman-led organisation called FRONTIER INDIGENOUS NETWORK.
As a founder member I started as community mobiliser and now I am Executive Director. Because of my work and campaigns I have been called many names by those people who are opposed to change. I cannot mention those names here — they are unprintable or not worth mentioning. But this award also goes to them too.
Thank you Index on Censorship for selecting my work in northern Kenya for this award. The women of northern Kenya will now know that their struggles and their efforts to fight for their rights are being recognised internationally.
Today is my birthday and it will be a birthday that I will never forget. It will be in my mind for the rest of my life. You are a true partner of the women of northern Kenya. Thank you.
Moroccan rapper and human rights activist Mouad “El Haqed” Belghouat (roughly translated as “the enraged”) has not only seen his songs censored and his album banned but has also been imprisoned three times since 2011 – including a one-year jail term for lyrics critical of the police in his song Dogs of the State. Imprisoned for four months in 2014, after seeing witnesses at his trial stopped from testifying and key pieces of evidence barred, El Haqed continues to make music about endemic corruption in the Moroccan state and widespread poverty in his country. He is the recipient of the 2015 Index on Censorship Freedom of Expression Award for Arts.
I take this opportunity to thank you for this honour, especially Helen and David for everything they did for me to obtain my visa to be here today among you. And I can’t forget the many people who believe in my case and helped me through since I was jailed for the first time in 2011. I’m sorry that I can’t reveal more names but I will remember you forever.
While I was writing this speech, I didn’t know yet if I would be able to join you or not — because so often my visa applications have been refused. I hope future generations will have more freedom to travel without obstacles — because the earth belongs to us and we belong to it.
I’m very honoured by this nomination and I dedicate it to the soul of my mother and to all people who were prisoners, or are right now still incarcerated, or will be prisoners in the future because of their mere thoughts or opinions.
I was jailed three times because of my opinions. It would take a long time to speak about each arrest, so to make a long story short, just a few words on why they arrested me each time:
The first time: because of my activities in 20 February movement. We were asking for freedom, equality and democracy.
The second time: because of a song that someone else uploaded to YouTube three years earlier. It doesn’t make sense at first, but it does when you realise that it didn’t allow me to finish the album I was working on.
The third time: the same old story. I was going to a stadium and they arrested me because I continue to refuse to change my positions.
I have been through difficult times: I was jailed, fired from my work, rejected by many friends. I am still forbidden to sing in my own country. But after all that I am still determined that I will never change my position. I will fight for freedom, equality and human rights for ever.
I am very happy to have the chance to speak freely in front of you today. I hope I will one day be able to speak freely and sing in my own country in front of my fans.
Right now, as we celebrate, there are a lot of people behind bars because of their opinions. I hope for freedom for them really soon.
Freedom of expression is your arm. Lift it to fight for dignity and equality. Even if they kill us or jail us they cannot do the same with our thoughts or opinions. You cannot kill an idea or opinion. You cannot put it behind bars.
Thank you again everyone and have a great evening.
Banned from performing at home in Morocco, Arts category winner Mouad “El Haqed” Belghouat sang at the Index awards (Photo: Alex Brenner for Index on Censorship)
Both as a journalist and human rights activist, Rafael Marques de Morais has exposed government and industry corruption in Angola – speaking out for those whose human rights have been violated in his country. Despite repeated arrests and threats, including a 40-day detention without charge during which he was denied food and water for days, Marques de Morais has continued his investigations, most recently detailing human rights abuses within Angola’s diamond companies – including 500 cases of torture and 100 murders of villagers living in the vicinity. After filing charges of crimes against humanity against seven Angolan generals, Marques do Morais is now being counter-sued for $1.6 (£1.09) million. Undeterred, he continues to write on corruption in Angola. He is the joint recipient of the 2015 Index on Censorship Freedom of Expression Award for Journalism.
With an award comes a greater responsibility. It is therefore my privilege to accept this journalism award, and dedicate it to my fellow Ethiopian colleagues Eskinder Nega, Reeyot Alemo, and the Zone 9 bloggers. They are in jail, currently serving some of the harshest sentences in Africa, for the crime of exercising their right to freedom of expression. For over a year, the Ethiopian government has denied adequate health care to Reeyot Alemu, who is in desperate need.
Ethiopia is the seat of the African Union, and its regime is one of the worst offenders for upholding the freedoms of the press and of expression. When a regime in Africa succeeds in trampling their citizens’ rights with impunity, and enjoys such good international standing and legitimacy as Ethiopia, it becomes a textbook case for other authoritarian regimes.
I believe in the power of solidarity. I have experienced troubles of my own. It has been the solidarity of others that has helped to strengthen my courage and resolve to continue my journey.
Back in 1996, being in London and aghast at press censorship in Angola, I decided to bring it to international attention. Because I could not speak English, I fumbled through an organization’s directory, and found Index on Censorship. I could understand the word Censorship. I called them and attended a meeting on Africa. My remarks were most convincing and incredibly short! “Censorship in Angola bad. Dos Santos [the president] bad. Very bad!” Then, a few months later I had an article translated and published in Index’s magazine. It was disseminated through other publications in a number of countries.
On my return to Angola from this trip, I will be sitting in court, on 24 March, as the defendant on 11 separate charges of defamation brought against me by seven powerful generals and four of their business associates. I wrote a book that exposed human rights abuses in the diamond industry, in which the plaintiffs are major shareholders and whose private security company has executed many of the violations.
I am proud and honored to stand up against such a mighty power to enable many of the victims to speak out through my reports, which I have been producing for the past 10 years. I will come out of this trial stronger and empowered by the experience.
Thank you very much for this wonderful occasion.
Journalist and human rights activist Rafael Marques de Morais (Photo: Alex Brenner for Index on Censorship)
Comedian Shappi Khorsandi, the host of this year’s Index on Censorship Freedom of Expression Awards, understands the effects of censorship first hand.
Her father, Iranian writer and comic Hadi Khorsandi, was forced to flee to Britain in 1979 with his family, including a young Shappi, following the Iranian revolution and his criticism of the new regime. Even in the UK, Khorsandi continued to receive death threats.
“During the 1979 revolution against the Shah, there were crowds calling for my father’s execution because of his satirical writings. The only way to stay in Iran was to toe the party line. He chose exile, a profound experience for a writer,” Khorsandi says.
Khorsandi speaks movingly of the effects of exile on writers, saying: “They have to leave their home country to be able to express themselves freely in their native language. Censorship was a huge thing in my family.”
Once in Britain, Hadi Khorsandi continued writing and also published a satirical newspaper: “Because of this there was a plot to assassinate him in 1984,” says his daughter.
Many of those shortlisted for this year’s freedom of expression awards have experienced similar attempts to silence them. Lirio Abbate, an Italian journalist who faces constant threat of attack because of his investigations into the mafia, has 24-hour police protection. Others, like Angolan journalist Rafael Marques de Morais, Moroccan rapper El Haqed, or Ecuadorian cartoonist Bonil, are repeatedly threatened with jail for challenging powerful government and business interests.
Index on Censorship magazine featured Hadi Khorsandi’s work in two of its 1986 issues, describing his humour as “aimed at the follies and absurdities of the present Iranian regime and giving the reader a vivid picture of life in a country where ideology and zeal have been allowed to reign unchecked.” The October issue in which Hadi Khorsandi’s work features also includes an essay by Nobel Prize-winning author Gabriel Garcia Marquez.
“I’ve known about Index on Censorship for years – there were always Index logos in our house because of my father’s work,” says Khorsandi. “It’s quite an honour to have been asked to host the awards, one I accept on my father’s behalf.”
The 15th Index on Censorship Freedom of Expression Awards were held on March 18 at the Barbican, London.
