Deeyah

Billed as the Muslim Madonna by The Sun newspaper, Deeyah is a Pakistani-Norwegian singer activist. Her controversial lyrics about free speech and women's rights have outraged ultra conservative elements within the Muslim community. She and her family have been the targets of death threats and she has been forced to constantly change her location.

Deeyah has been an inspiration for thousands of women around the world. She says that "I am extremely proud of my heritage, my parent's heritage and the fact that I am from a Muslim community". But all too often, fundamentalist Muslims have not been proud of her, attacking her music career with vitriol and near-violence in Norway and Britain.

Deeyah's response was the 2006 music video What Will It Be, which defended her own position as a progressive Muslim music artist, and served as a rallying cry to harried Muslim women suffering similar abuse elsewhere. Deeyah is adamant about standing up for what is right. "It is very important that we keep talking, no matter how uncomfortable we might be ... no issue can be taken off the table or we are heading for a divided society."

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Since being recognised by the Freedom to Create Prize in 2008, Deeyah has released her new album Ataraxis and redoubled her efforts to help other women. She is expanding the Sisterhood project which works for women's rights and producing a book of poetry by its participants; working with an all-women music band in Egypt; and producing a documentary about honour killings of immigrant women across Europe. In all of this, she says, the Freedom to Create Prize has been a great help.

"When someone stands up out of the blue, and acknowledges you, it is so unexpected and so terribly nice." The resources and publicity have also been beneficial. "Doing some of this work can get so hard, sometimes, year in and year out ... [the prize] was really, and still is, incredibly special."

Freedom to Create is incredibly grateful for the support, partnership, guidance and encouragement that we have received from our amazing supporters, artists, participants, judges and other organisations since we began in 2006. We have made the difficult decision to suspend Freedom to Create's Prize and Exhibitions from 31 December 2011 for a period of strategic evaluation. Thank you for your support and wishing you courage and creativity in all that you do.

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