Exiled Syrians honoured with human rights award

Exiled Syrians Orwa Nyrabia and Ali Farzat have personally experienced the dark sides of their country’s regime

By Sune Christiani

Film producer Orwa Nyrabia and political cartoonist Ali Farzat were smiling and making jokes on Wednesday in Copenhagen with good reason. They each received the Danish Poul Lauritzen (PL) human rights award and 10,000 euros each for their work on human rights and political freedom in Syria.

With the ongoing violence in the country, the PL Foundation sought to honour Syrians who still fight by nonviolent means.

“We decided to honour two people who have worked tirelessly for political freedom long before the war started, and now from their exile,” says Poul Søgaard, chairman of the PL Foundation. Established by Danish merchant Poul Lauritzen, the foundation aims to support people and activities that work in compliance with the UN Declaration of Human Rights.

Watch the battle for freedom here in the Danish current affairs programme “Horisont” which profiles artists and journalists fighting for freedom. The programme was made with support from IMS.

Tortured and detained

One of the most famous political cartoonists in the Arab world, Ali Farzat has previously been banned from entering Iraq, Jordan and Libya because of his caricatures. He was kidnapped in August 2011 in Damascus and was subsequently beaten, burned and had his hands broken.

“I am stronger today than before the attack,” says Farzat, who now lives in exile in Kuwait where he works for the newspaper Al-Watan.

Orwa Nyrabia and his wife Diana el-Jeiroudi founded Proaction Film in 2002, the first independent film production company in Syria producing documentaries dealing with social justice and gender issues. The couple also founded the DOX BOX film festival in 2008, which quickly became the most significant international documentary film festival in the region.

Orwa Nyrabia was arrested in August 2012 by Syrian security and held in a prison for 22 days after attempting to board a flight to Cairo.

Accepting their awards in Copenhagen, Farzat and Nyrabia thanked the foundation and encouraged further support for the Syrian people:

“Syria needs you to stand by its side for its freedom and democracy. The Syrian revolution never asked for money or food. It only asked for freedom. And I assure you that the Syrian revolution was victorious on the very first day fear was overcome by the Syrian people,” said Ali Farzat.

Films with a lasting impact

IMS has been working with Orwa Nyrabia for seven years on a number of projects, including the DOX BOX film festival, which has now been suspended due to the conflict in Syria.

“We partner with IMS on making good films, not only quick urgent reportages, but films that will live longer and have an impact on people in the long run,” says Nyrabia. His company Proaction Film is currently working on several projects under the theme ‘the life of Syrians today’.

“These are stories of people on the inside of the big events. Some are very active in what is happening. Others are normal people, but surrounded by everything that is going on. We feel that it is very important to make worthwhile films from such an important period of our history,” says Nyrabia.