Ibn Rushd Foundation for the Freedom of Thought is an association based in Germany, whose members are from the Arab diaspora or live across various Arab countries. It takes its name after the philosopher Ibn Rushd (1126-1198), taking it upon itself to support free thought and democratic forces in the Arab world by offering an annual prize. The award is independent, funded by contributions from its members and donations from supporters, with no link to any political or ideological trends. The award’s topic change each year.

Mou’in Al Bayari, for Al Araby, October 16th, 2015
The Belarusian Svetlana Alexievich, journalist, meets with many people who witnessed the tragedy she writes about about. She gathers their testimonies, and creates out of an open collage a narrative. The result is not a novel in the usual sense of the term, nor is it a reportage or an investigation. It is a meeting of literature with journalism. It invoques reality, as it is, but with an elevated writing style, rich with words expressing both the intimate and the apparent.

An interview by Ruth Reif, for Der Standaart, published on October 2, 2015

“My soul remains in Syria»
A year after the outbreak of the Syrian revolution, Samar Yazbek was forced to flee. Her name was blacklisted. Since then she has returned several times secretly to her home to interview people.

A review by Eglal Errera, for Le Monde des livres, published Firday 16th of October, 2015.
Photo credit: La Croix.

A comforting feeling of time and space. Where does this feeling come from in Lebanese writer Jabbour Douaihy’s American neighborhood? When one knows that this story takes place in today’s Lebanon, a short distance away from the Syrian border, in the city of Tripoli that is particularly exposed to the horrors of the killings in the neighboring hills, and shaken by incessant communal clashes, that peaceful feeling is almost shocking.