Nazra for Feminist Studies has the honor of having its founder and CEO, Mozn Hassan, a feminist activist and woman human rights defender be granted the Hrant Dink Award for the year 2020. The award was founded in 2009 in the honor of the struggles which Armenian journalist Hrant Dink faced in terms of how he fought all his life for Armenian rights and documented the massacres that were done by the Turks towards this ethnic group. Dink paid the price for that with his life, as he was assassinated in 2007 while being on trial for attacking Turkish values since he was publicly showing support for Armenians, documented the massacres and called for accountability for the perpetrators of those crimes. Up to this day the people who killed him have not been held accountable.

The Hrant Dink Award is presented to individuals, organisations and groups that give inspiration and hope to people for holding on to their struggle, that work for a more liberal and fair world free from discrimination, racism and violence, who take personal risks for achieving those ideals, who break the stereotypes and use the language of peace. Approximately 20 individuals and groups have received this award from 11 different countries, with Mozn Hassan being the first Egyptian to receive it. Mozn is receiving this award for the work she conducted on several issues, in Egypt and the MENA region, including and not limited to, combating sexual violence against women in the public sphere and provision of various support services to survivors of these crimes, supporting women’s right to participate in the political sphere and guaranteeing the inclusion of their rights in the constitution and Egyptian legislation, supporting young feminist initiatives in their work on different issues, and supporting women human rights defenders and shedding light on the violations they encounter and urging the Egyptian state to undertake necessary measures to ensure a real and effective participation of women in the public sphere, and exercise their fundamental right to bodily integrity.

It is important to note that Mozn Hassan has also won the Charlotte Bunch Award for Women Human Rights Defenders in 2013 from Global Fund for Women while Hassan and Nazra for Feminist Studies won the 2016 Right Livelihood Award which is also known as the Alternative Nobel Prize.

As a result of what the world is now facing due to consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic, the award ceremony is held online this year. However, feminist and WHRD, Mozn Hassan, has not been able to travel to collect the award due to a travel ban that was issued against her by an order from the general prosecutor in 2016 within the context of her inclusion in Case 173/2011, commonly known as the “NGOs Foreign Funding Case”.