Wajeha Al Hawaider, a banned writer from Saudi Arabia, attended a ceremony on 15 November in The Hague to accept the 2004 PEN/NOVIB Free Expression Award granted to her and five other nominees. Al-Huwaider, who writes for the Arabic-language daily Al-Watan and the English-language daily Arab News, has been banned from publishing since August 2003. She is among a growing number of liberal and opposition journalists to have been banned from publishing and subject to government harassment in recent months. She told gathering that ¡°these are dark ages for women [in Saudi Arabia]. They have no freedom at all. Being a woman you can work only in two sectors:hospital and other medical care, then only as a nurse or assistant, and education as a teacher. But no leading positions. Women have no identity no face. You even need permission from you ¡°mentor¡± if you want to go outside, otherwise you stay at home. Being a woman you have no connections, no possibility to develop yourself¡±.

The other award winners were Du Daobin, Chinese writer recently freed, Malaysian rights activist Irene Fernandez, on trial since 1995, Anna Politkovskaya, Russian journalist frequently under attack for her reports on Chechnya, and Tunisian Internet activist, Zouhair Yahyaoui.

For more information about the award click:
www.novib.nl/content/?type=Article&id=6235&FromList=y

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The Dutch PEN Centre also gained press coverage on 28 writers and journalists killed in the past year, and its members used the occasion to send greetings cards to prisoners around the world, and in particular Ali Al Domaini, an intellectual detained in Saudi Arabia.

Click here for the Dutch PEN Centre website: www.pencentrum.nl