2010 Judges
Fatima Bhutto
Fatima Bhutto is a Pakistani-born poet, journalist and social activist.
Fatima graduated from Columbia University in 2004, majoring in Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures and from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in 2005 with a Masters in South Asian Government and Politics.
She is the author of three books: “Whispers of the Desert”, a volume of poetry; “8.50 a.m. 8 October 2005”, a collection of first-hand accounts from survivors of the 2005 earthquake in Pakistan; and her most recent book, “Songs of Blood and Sword”, a portrayal of her father, Murtaza Bhutto, and which spent two months topping best seller lists across Asia.
Fatima also wrote a weekly column for Jang - Pakistan's largest Urdu newspaper and its English sister publication The News – for two years. She covered the Israeli Invasion and war with Lebanon from Lebanon in the summer of 2006 and also reported from Iran in January 2007 and Cuba in April 2008. Fatima’s work has appeared in the New Statesman, Daily Beast, Guardian, and The Caravan Magazine.
Photograph Amean J
Professor Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw
Professor Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw is a prominent figure in Critical Race Theory and currently a professor at UCLA School of Law and Columbia Law School specializing in race and gender issues and constitutional law. She was elected Professor of the Year by the 1991 and 1994 graduating classes. She now splits her time each year between UCLA and the Columbia School of Law.
Her work on race and gender was influential in the drafting of the equality clause in the South African Constitution. In 2001, she wrote the background paper on Race and Gender Discrimination for the United Nations World Conference on Racism and helped to facilitate the addition of gender in the WCAR Conference Declaration. Crenshaw has also served as a member of the National Science Foundation's Committee to Research Violence Against Women and has assisted the legal team representing Anita Hill. She is also a founding member of the Women's Media Initiative and is a regular commentator.
Crenshaw is also co-founder, with Prof. Luke Harris, of the African American Policy Forum (AAPF) which is dedicated to advancing and expanding racial justice, gender equality, and the indivisibility of all human rights, both in the U.S. and internationally.
D*Face
D*Face is one of the most prolific contemporary urban artists of his generation. His aim is to encourage the public not just to 'see', but to look at what surrounds them and their lives, reflecting our increasingly bizarre fascination for with celebrity, fame, consumerism and materialism, re-thinking, reworking and subverting imagery drawn from a refuge of decades of materialistic consumption, imagery appropriated from currency, advertising, comic books, these now iconic motifs, cultural figures and genres are subverted to comment upon our conspicuous society.
Examples of his work include his 'collaboration' with H.R.H Queen Elizabeth II on a series of bank notes that were put into circulation for an unsuspecting public to notice in their change. He also painted a portrait of the newly installed Pope Benedict XVI, which was shown for the first time at the Outside Institute in May 2005, as well as on MTV Rome, to critical acclaim.
D*Face was one of 50 artists commissioned to create a 50th anniversary Penguin book cover and is the only urban artist to date to be featured on the front cover of the fine art publication Art Review. His sell out shows ‘Death & Glory’, 'EyeCons', 'aPOPcalypse now' and most recently 'All your Dreams Belong to Us' in New York last September, firmly founded D*Face’s presence within the global contemporary art market. Whilst retaining his notoriety by putting his work illegally into the public domain around the world, his work also regularly sells at Christies, Sotherbys and Bonhams auction houses.
He recently created the artwork for Christina Aguilera's number one selling album 'Bionic'. He has also established and curated the StolenSpace gallery which is London’s foremost contemporary urban art gallery.
Photograph © Viktor Vauthier
Professor Dame Sandra Dawson
Professor Dame Sandra Dawson, DBE was appointed by the UK’s Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling as the non-executive director at the UK Financial Services Authority.
Previous to this, Professor Dame Dawson was on the Board of Directors at Barclays bank.
She was also Master of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge University, KPMG, is Professor of Management Studies and former director of the Judge Business School from 1999 to 2009. In a 2004 poll, student newspaper Varsity named her as the 6th most powerful individual in the university - one place above Professor Stephen Hawking.
Prior to becoming Director of the Judge Business School in 1995, Dawson was Professor of Organisational Behaviour (1990-1995) and Deputy Director of the Management School (1987-1994) at Imperial College, University of London.
Mohsen Makhmalbaf
Mohsen Makhmalbaf joins the panel as the 2009 Freedom to Create Prize winner. He is an acclaimed Iranian filmmaker and peer to the new wave movement of Iranian cinema.
Time magazine selected Makhmalbaf’s 2001 Kandahar, a stunning portrayal of the Taliban’s mistreatment of women, as one of the top 100 films of all time. His films explore the relationship between the individual and a larger social and political environment which means his work serves as an extended commentary on the historical progression of the Iranian state and its people. As a result, several of his films are banned in Iran.
In addition to his professional success, Makhmalbaf has established charities in Afghanistan and Iran to support education, healthcare and women rights. He has also passed along his filmmaking skills and passions to his children, who are all acclaimed filmmakers in their own right. He is currently president of the Asian Film Academy and spokesperson for the Iranian Green Movement.
Mira Nair
Mira Nair is an award winning film director and producer. Her debut feature film, “Salaam Bombay!” won the Golden Camera award at the Cannes Film Festival and also earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Foreign Language Film. She used the proceeds of the film to establish the Salaam Baalak Trust, an organization for street children in India. She has won a number of awards, including a National Film Award, and has been honoured at various international film festivals. She was also awarded the India Abroad Person of the Year in 2006 and 2007. In 2007, she was honoured with the Pride of India award at the 9th Bollywood Film Awards for her contributions to the film industry.
Ms Nair’s latest project is Maisha, a film lab to help East Africans and South Asians learn to make films. Maisha is headquartered in Nair's adopted home of Kampala, Uganda.
Photograph © Brigitte Lacombe
Mariane Pearl
Mariane Pearl is a journalist and author who writes features in English, Spanish and French.
Her first book, ‘A Mighty Heart’, was an international success and was translated into fifteen languages. In 2007, it was released as a major feature film, starring Angelina Jolie in the role of Mariane Pearl. Her second book ‘In Search of Hope’ is a collection of profiles of extraordinary women around the world. The collection first appeared as a series of columns in Glamour magazine, the widest circulating women's magazine in the world.
Mariane is a successful public speaker for international audiences and 8,000 people recently heard her speak at New York’s Radio City Music Hall. She is often invited to participate as subject matter expert for a selection of key awards around the globe. Her jury work includes the Gucci-Tribeca documentary fund, the CNN Heroes award, the Internews global journalism award, the Sciences Politiques journalism award, and the Vital Voices award.
She contributes to many publications such as The New York Times, The Sunday Times, Condé Nast Traveller, Self Magazine, The Independent and others. She also works for broadcast media, reporting and producing documentaries. Mariane is currently writing her third book and working on a documentary on resilience.
Mariane is the recipient of the National Headliners award for magazine writing, the Time Warner Woman of the Year award, The White House project award, the American Women in Radio and Television award, the Internews award for excellence in international reporting, the Vital Voices award, the ‘El Mundo’ editorial award in Spain, and the ‘Prix Vérité’ in France for excellence in non-fiction writing, amongst several other honours.
Professor Tariq Ramadan
Professor Tariq Ramadan is Professor of Contemporary Islamic Studies at the Oxford University (Oriental Institute, St Antony's College). He is also teaching at the Oxford Faculty of Theology and is the Senior Research Fellow at Doshisha University (Kyoto, Japan)
A 2008 online poll provided by The British Prospect and the American Foreign Policy magazines placed him eighth in a list of the world’s top 100 contemporary intellectuals. Last year, Foreign Policy placed Ramadan 49th on their power list.
Through his writings and lectures he has contributed substantially to the debate on the issues of Muslims in the West and Islamic revival in the Muslim world. He advocates the study and re-interpretation of Islamic texts and emphasizes the heterogeneous nature of Western Muslims. He is active both at the academic and grassroots levels lecturing extensively throughout the world on theology, ethics, social justice, ecology and interfaith as well intercultural dialogue. Professor Tariq Ramadan is also President of the European think tank, European Muslim Network (EMN), in Brussels.
Tariq Ramadan’s latest books are “What I believe” (Nov 2009), “Radical Reform, Islamic Ethics and Liberation” (Nov 2008).
Geoffrey Robertson QC
Geoffrey Robertson QC returns for the second year as a Freedom to Create Prize panellist. He is a leading human rights lawyer, academic, author and broadcaster. Mr Robertson serves as a Master of the Bench at the Middle Temple and a recorder and visiting professor at Queen Mary, University of London. He has acted for the defence in several high-profile trials involving free expression and human rights. In the course of his work, he received threats for representing Salman Rushdie; was involved in the prosecution of Augusto Pinochet, Chile’s military dictator in the 1970s; and served on the UNs special tribunal for Sierra Leone until 2007. In 2008 he was appointed to the UN's Internal Justice Council as one of three distinguished jurist members.
Sir Ken Robinson
Sir Ken Robinson PhD, is an internationally recognized leader in the development of creativity, innovation and human resources. In 1998, he led a national commission on creativity, education and the economy for the UK Government. ‘All Our Futures: Creativity, Culture and Education’ (The Robinson Report) was published to wide acclaim in 1999. He was the central figure in developing a strategy for creative and economic development as part of the Peace Process in Northern Ireland, working with the ministers for training, education enterprise and culture. He was one of four international advisors to the Singapore Government for its strategy to become the creative hub of South East Asia.
For twelve years, he was Professor of Education at the University of Warwick in the UK and is now Professor Emeritus. He has received honorary degrees from the Open University and the Central School of Speech and Drama; Birmingham City University, Rhode Island School of Design, Ringling College of Art and Design and the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts. He has been honoured with the Athena Award of the Rhode Island School of Design for services to the arts and education; the Peabody Medal for contributions to the arts and culture in the United States, and the Benjamin Franklin Medal of the Royal Society of Arts for outstanding contributions to cultural relations between the United Kingdom and the United States.
In 2005 he was named as one of Time/Fortune/CNN’s Principal Voices. In 2003, he received a knighthood from Queen Elizabeth II for his services to the arts.
His new book, a New York Times Best Seller, ‘The Element: How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything’ (2009) is being translated into sixteen languages
Jehan Sadat
Mrs. Jehan Sadat was married to President Anwar Sadat of Egypt and has been a life-long social activist, humanitarian, and nationalist who has dedicated herself to her country and its people.
She founded the African-Arab Women’s League and hosts as well as participates in countless conferences and seminars concerning women’s issues, children’s welfare, and peace. Always concerned with the eradication of illiteracy, family planning, and the rights of women, Mrs. Sadat became socially active long before her husband became the President of Egypt. One of her first projects was the Talla Society, a cooperative for the illiterate village women of a province in the Nile Delta region. She has also supported Egyptian disabled war veterans and their families by establishing Wafa’ Wa Amal (Faith and Hope), the first and largest rehabilitation center of its kind in the Middle East. Mrs. Sadat introduced the first S.O.S. Children’s Villages to Egypt to offer orphaned children the chance to lead normal lives.
Mrs. Jehan Sadat was instrumental in the reform of Egypt’s civil rights laws which had for decades inhibited women from reaching their political and social potential and from gaining their right to participate fully in public life.
Following the assassination of President Sadat in 1981, Mrs. Sadat retreated from public life. After a period of grief and uncertainty, she resumed her role as an educator, lecturer, social activist for women’s rights and the cause of international peace by becoming a Visiting Professor at the American University in Washington, D.C. and the University of South Carolina. Currently, Mrs. Sadat is a tenured professor at the University of Maryland where The Anwar Sadat Chair for Development and Peace was established and fully endowed in 1997.
Professor Cynthia P. Schneider
Professor Schneider will lead, along with Dr. Sami el Masri, Director of Strategic Planning, Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage (ADACH), The Global Initiative for Cultural Diplomacy (GICD). The Global Institute will analyze, study and document the immense, but little understood, impact of arts, culture, and media in all their forms on international politics; national and ethnic identities; security; conflict resolution and emerging states; education; economic development; the development of civil society; and, most fundamentally and importantly, how people express themselves and understand each other around the world. This endeavor will both respond to and take advantage of the growing interest in cultural diplomacy on the part of governments, NGOs and civil society, business, and students. It will elevate this field of study and practice to the importance it deserves in this era of collapsing borders, global communication and media, and increasing power of non state actors.
Prof. Schneider also teaches courses in Diplomacy and Culture in the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. From 1998-2001 she served as U.S. Ambassador to the Netherlands. In 2001 she was awarded the Office of the Secretary of Defense Exceptional Public Service Award, June 2001 (highest civilian award given by Pentagon, in recognition of support for the U.S. military during ambassadorship).
Ana Tzarev
Ana Tzarev is a Croatian born artist who has lived and travelled extensively around the globe. In a world rapidly merging into a monoculture with the advance of globalisation Ana captures, records and celebrates the fascinating traditions and creativity of disappearing cultures.
"My paintings are a postcard to future generations. They tell stories of a world rich in diversity and of cultures and traditions that shaped civilisation in its journey across the sands of time".
Ana feels strongly for people who are casualties of conflict and repression, having struggled herself through hardships in Croatia during the Second World War. In a series called "Dispossessed", Tzarev depicts the plight of these people highlighting their anguish and hope for a better future. Ana is an eternal optimist who believes the human spirit can conquer oppression and claim the freedom to create that releases the joy of self expression residing in every soul.
Ana Tzarev’s New York gallery on 57th street is a frequent host to many charitable organisations working to advance human development and creativity.
