Former President Nasheed receives James Lawson Award

Friday, June 29th, 2012

Opposition Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP)’s presidential candidate, former President Mohamed Nasheed has received the James Lawson Award for Achievement in the Practice of Nonviolent Action.

According to MDP, the James Lawson Award for Achievement in the Practice of Nonviolent Action was awarded to former President Nasheed in recognition of his leadership during many years of the nonviolent opposition to former President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom’s regime, his courage in the face of what MDP accuses as an armed coup earlier this year which is said to have forced him from power, and his renewed nonviolent action on behalf of restoring genuine democracy in his country.

The award was presented by Dr. James Lawson, the distinguished American practitioner and scholar of nonviolent action, who was one of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s closest advisors during the American civil rights movement in the 1960s.

Last year’s winners included Ghada Shahbender, a key Egyptian activist in the nonviolent movement which led to the resignation of Hosni Mubarak; Nada Alwadi, a Bahraini journalist who has chronicled the repression of nonviolent protests in her country; Lhadon Tethong, a leading activist for Tibetan self- determination; and Dr. Mary King, one of the world’s foremost scholars of nonviolent struggle.

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