Narin Sotoudeh, Iranian lawyer and human rights activist was announced as the winner of 2018 Kurt Tucholsky PEN award.

PEN website announced: “The 2018 Kurt Tucholsky PEN award goes to Nasrin Sotoudeh, the human rights lawyer and author, for her courage in constant struggle in defense of voices at risk of censorship and silence in Iran.”

The PEN jury stated: “Nasrin Sotoudeh’s fight for justice in defense of writers, journalists, and female social activists in Iran continues.”

International PEN has named November 15th as the Imprisoned Writers Day. Each year on November 15th the PEN association awards the Tucholsky award to a writer or a journalist in solidarity with imprisoned journalists and writers and to raise awareness about their struggles in their countries.

Tucholsky was a journalist/satirist and a member of Independent Socialist Party of Germany. After the rise of Hitler and the Nazi party, his German citizenship was revoked due to his journalism and his Jewish ethnicity, and he was banished to Sweden. He died in hospital due to a drug overdose. Some believe he committed suicide.