Hillary Clinton to honor Turkish Assembly’s courageous member

WASHINGTON

Republican People’s Party member Şafak Pavey will receive the award tomorrow at a ceremony in Washington. DHA photo

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will host the 2012 International Women of Courage Awards ceremony tomorrow. The special guest of the event will be First Lady Michelle Obama.

The Republican People’s Party (CHP) parliamentarian Şafak Pavey, who is the first disabled woman elected to the Turkish Parliament, will be one of the recipients of the award.

According to the award website, Pavey will be presented the award for giving voice to disabled persons, women and minority populations in Turkey since 2011 after winning a seat in Parliament.

“Pavey has demonstrated great personal dignity in overcoming physical obstacles every day, while locally and globally championing the rights of vulnerable populations, including refugees and disabled persons. Whether working in extreme conditions for the United Nations High Commission on Refugees (UNHCR) in the Middle East, South Asia and Africa, or acting as a lightning rod to spark the UN Interagency Support Group for the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, Pavey has sought to turn her disability into strength on a global level,” the website said. Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women’s Issues Melanne Verveer and other United States and foreign dignitaries will also participate in the award ceremony.

Other special guests of this year’s award ceremony will include Leymah Gbowee and Tawakkol Karman, 2011 Nobel Peace Prize Laureates. The event will be held at 11 a.m. in the Dean Acheson Auditorium of the U.S. Department of State.

The prestigious Secretary of State’s Award for International Women of Courage annually recognizes women around the globe who have shown exceptional courage and leadership in advocating for women’s rights and empowerment, often at great personal risk. Since the inception of this award in 2007, the Department of State has honored 46 women from 34 countries. Following the awards ceremony, the International Women of Courage Awards recipients will travel to 10 U.S. cities to engage with their American counterparts through the International Visitor Leadership Program.

Other honorees
The other honorees of the 2012 International Women of Courage Awards are Maryam Durani, Kandahar Provincial Council member (Afghanistan); Pricilla de Oliveira Azevedo, Rio de Janeiro Military Police (Brazil); political activist and NGO co-founder Zin Mar Aung (Burma); investigative journalist Jineth Bedoya Lima (Colombia); architect and political activist Hana Elhebshi (Libya); gender-based violence (GBV) activist and former Deputy Minister of Women’s Affairs Aneesa Ahmed (Maldives); human rights activist and founder/executive director of Anjuman Behbood-e-Khawateen Talah (the Union of Women’s Welfare) Shad Begum (Pakistan); political activist Samar Badawi (Saudi Arabia); and human rights activist Hawa Abdallah Mohammed Salih (Sudan).

For further information about the honorees go to www.state.gov/s/gwi/programs/iwoc/2012/bio/index.htm.