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Dawut named International Writer of Courage
Professor Rahile Dawut, who went missing in 2017, has been named the International Writer of Courage.
Author Michael Rosen revealed Dawut’s win at the English PEN ceremony at the British Library on Wednesday evening (11th October) while accepting the PEN Pinter Prize 2023.
Dawut, anthropologist and leading expert on the study of Uyghur folklore and cultural traditions, was selected as co-winner by Rosen in collaboration with English PEN’s Writers at Risk Programme.
The Writer of Courage Prize is awarded to a writer who is active in defence of freedom of expression, often at great risk to their own safety and liberty.
Organisers said: “An associate professor at Xinjiang University and founder of the university’s research centre on minority folklore, professor Rahile Dawut is recognised around the world for her peerless contributions to the study and cataloguing of Uyghur cultural heritage.
“In December 2017, Rahile Dawut was due to travel to Beijing for an academic conference, but never reached her destination. It was widely believed that she had been ’disappeared’ by the Chinese authorities.
“Despite international condemnation of her disappearance and a campaign led by her daughter calling for her release, more than three years passed before her former co-workers were able to confirm that the Chinese authorities had sentenced and imprisoned her. Six years since she first disappeared, she continues to be held incommunicado and her whereabouts remain unknown.
“Last month, it was widely reported that a sentence of life imprisonment on charges of endangering state security by promoting ’splittism’, originally handed down in 2018, has now been upheld.”
PEN said it considers Dawut’s imprisonment to be a clear breach of her right to freedom of expression and calls for her immediate and unconditional release.
The award was accepted on professor Dawut’s behalf by Rachel Harris, professor of ethnomusicology, SOAS University of London.
Organisers added: “Professor Rahile Dawut is a long-standing case of concern to PEN and is among the writers featured in English PEN’s international letter-writing campaign, PENWrites, in solidarity with writers in prison and at risk around the world, with many PEN members, supporters, and partner organisations having written messages of support.”
Professor Dawut’s daughter, Akeda Pulati, said: “My mother is a distinguished scholar. She should be doing her research and enjoying her retirement life right now but instead she is in prison.
"And recent news about her life imprisonment not only devastated me, but also devastated anyone who loves her and who loves Uyghur culture. She is being punished for being a hard-working scholar and for loving culture.”
Ruth Borthwick, chair of English PEN, explained why Rosen was chosen of this year’s Pinter Prize.
“Michael Rosen is one of our most tenacious and fearless writers," she said. "In over 140 books, he has championed a way of writing for children which reflects their everyday worlds, using humour and wordplay to validate their imaginative ways of thinking and being, and which has informed his succinct interventions into the lifeless way that children are taught literacy in schools."
Rosen said: ‘I feel honoured to have been offered the PEN Pinter Prize. It immediately brings to mind the many people all over the world incarcerated, tortured or executed for being brave enough to write about what they perceive to be injustice."
The PEN Pinter Prize was established in 2009 by the charity English PEN, which defends freedom of expression and celebrates literature, in memory of Harold Pinter, the Nobel-Laureate playwright.
