Azza Soliman

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The Foundation of Anna Dahlbäck’s Memorial Fund has the honour of awarding the grant of SEK 50,000 for year 2021 to the lawyer Ms Azza Soliman.

 

The motivation for the 2021 grant is:

Azza Soliman is an Egyptian lawyer and activist for human rights. She has co-founded the Centre for Egytian Women’s Legal Assistance  (CEWLA) and Lawyers for Justice and Peace, two non-governmental organisations  that fight for equality for women, not least legal equality.  She has the courage not only to discuss and bring out political liabilities such as gender-based violence, honour killings, female genital mutilation etc. but also to demand that the islamic legal system in Egypt has to adjust itself to human and by that also women’s rights. As a result of her courageous work she is constantly harassed, targeted with smear campaigns and threatened by loss of freedom. 

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Azza Soliman fulfils the requirements of the Foundation’s Statutes that the grant is to be awarded ”a person – in particular with a law education – who works for human rights in Sweden or abroad and who has demonstrated great dedication an moral courage” including ”altruistic commitment to the work for human rights and additional consideration is taken if the nominee’s actions have directly aided a person/persons in a vulnerable position”.