The Christopher G. Moore Foundation announced the Long-List of nine books for the 2024 Moore Prize on June 18, 2024. Included on the Long-List is Dr. Sima Samar’s memoir, “Outspoken: My Fight for Freedom and Human Rights in Afghanistan,” published by Saqi Books UK in February 2024. According to the Foundation, “The Moore Prize was established in 2015 to provide funds to authors who, through their work, contribute to the universality of human rights and to give a platform to human rights issues that are important in our current societies. This unique initiative is awarded annually, as chosen by a panel of judges whose own work focuses on human rights.”
“I have three strikes against me. I am a woman, I speak out for women and I’m Hazara, the most persecuted ethnic group in Afghanistan.’
Sima Samar has been fighting for equality and justice all her life. Born into a polygamous family, she learned early that girls had inferior status and had to agree to an arranged marriage to go to university.
Despite numerous death threats and decades of catastrophic warfare, Samar has worked tirelessly for the dream she is convinced is achievable: justice and human rights for all citizens of Afghanistan. From selling her own hand-embroidered bed quilt to pay for her education to becoming Minister of Women’s Affairs and thorn in the side of the Taliban, Samar has witnessed the internal and international political failures that have engulfed her country at every level.
In this poignant and inspiring memoir – the first inside story of Afghanistan by a woman – Samar provides an unparalleled view of her country’s past, present and fragile future.
Dr. Samar’s book is one of nine selected to the Long-List and the sole representative from Afghanistan in a group of books that grapple with human rights issues in Afghanistan, China, India, Israel, Mexico, Palestine, The Philippines, Ukraine, and the United States. “Chosen from a record 75 submissions,” the press release states, “each of these long-listed books cover a wide range of human rights issues: the human effects of war, the collapse of formal justice, genocide, immigration, the undermining of democracy, ethnic persecution, the right to justice and education for women, the worldwide sanitation crisis and the right to a healthy living environment.”
Read the full press release here.