The Vigdis 2025 Prize for Women’s Empowerment was awarded to the Palestinian organisation Women of the Sun on Monday 23 June, at the opening of the summer plenary session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe.
Founded in 2021 by Reem al-Hajajreh, who travelled to Strasbourg on Monday, Women of the Sun runs programmes that promote girls’ education and seeks to facilitate Palestinian women’s access to fields usually reserved for men, including politics, business and technology.
“The Women of the Sun have also led initiatives that bring Palestinian and Israeli women together, fostering dialogue, and indeed one of the sponsors for proposing their candidacy was precisely their sister organisation in Israel, Women Wage Peace”, points out Theodoros Rousopoulos, President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe and President of the Vigdis Prize.
The €60,000 prize is awarded jointly by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe and the Icelandic government.
It is named after former Icelandic President Vigdís Finnbogadóttir, the first woman in the world to be elected head of state. (Original version in French by Véronique Leblanc)