The Southall Black Sisters have been awarded the National Secular Society’s £5,000 Michael Irwin Prize for Secularist of the Year. The award was presented to Pragna Patel, Chair of the organisation, at prestigious award ceremony in central London yesterday.
Pragna Patel
NSS President Terry Sanderson said:
Southall Black Sisters was set up to meet the needs of Black and Asian women who are the victims of domestic violence or injustices in the legal system. The main aim of the organisation is to empower women in gaining more control over their lives, to be able to live without fear of violence and be able to assert their human rights to justice, equality and freedom. It is right on the forefront of the feminist struggle in this country. It celebrated its thirtieth anniversary last year, being founded in 1979 during the Southall race riots.
Mr Sanderson said that the group had been chosen to receive the prize because they provide a secular space where women fleeing violence or injustice – often resulting from religious attitudes – can find a safe haven. He said:
The Government’s ‘cohesion’ agenda has put an enormous amount of power into the hands of religious leaders in minority Asian communities. These are almost always very conservative in their outlook and some consider women’s rights to be unimportant. The Southall Black Sisters can provide women with some time away from this all-powerful religious patriarchy for them to sort out their problems in their own way.
Over a thousand women a year contact Southall Black Sisters on issues such as domestic violence, homelessness, immigration, police and racial harassment, health and concerns about their children.
Samantha Stein
A special campaigning award was also presented to Samantha Stein for her work on setting up Camp Quest, the UK’s first residential summer camp specifically for children whose parents embrace a naturalistic rather than supernatural world view.
Previous winners of the Irwin Prize include Maryam Namazie, the Iranian feminist and founder of the One law for All campaign, Dr Steve Jones the biologist who speaks out strongly against the rise of creationist ideas in science and last year it was won by Lord Avebury and Dr Evan Harris MP for their role in the abolition of the blasphemy laws.
The Freethinker was founded in 1881 by GW Foote, an outspoken critic of religion. After the publication of 
February 14th, 2010 at 5:12 pm
Yay! Congratulations Pragna and SBS!
Now let’s hope their funding will become a little less vulnerable to council cuts…
February 14th, 2010 at 5:48 pm
Congratulations Pragna and Samantha. Imaginative awards for their hard work and practical achievements.
February 14th, 2010 at 9:08 pm
In my view, the secularist of the year for this and the past several years is Richard Dawkins. But since (unless I am mistaken) he is one of the award’s sponsors, it makes sense that he was not eligible.
February 14th, 2010 at 9:14 pm
@William Harwood. I agree with your comment. However, perhaps it is an example of Richard Dawkins’ pre-eminence, to my mind anyway, that I assume he is so far ahead that I only tend to look at whoever is second.
February 15th, 2010 at 5:09 am
I was lucky enough to have a chat with Pragna Patel at the end of the awards. She is indeed a most worthy and gracious winner. Congratulations to her and to all the nominees for keeping up the noble fight against religious privilege.
February 15th, 2010 at 1:32 pm
Best choice of winner yet, by a mile.
An organisation that has a real impact for the better on the lives of real people, and also notable because the work they do reveals the worst problems of faith/superstition and the impossibility of tackling those problems without also removing the privileges of those who cause them.
February 16th, 2010 at 11:33 pm
Where are the feminists? I miss them dearly. Only seven responses, one woman. Men also don’t seem to be very interested in women’s problems.