The Virginia-based Randolph-Macon Woman's College has decide to offer its distinguished award “the 2001 Pearl S. Buck Award” to Egypt’s former first lady, Jehan Sadat, according to the college’s website.
The ceremony will take part on Saturday.
The award is named after a literature Nobel-Laureate, Pearl Sydenstricker Buck, an alumna, 1914. The award was given for the first time in 1998.
The award recognizes a remarkable woman whose life and work represent compassion, creativity, commitment to human rights, care for children, and a positive vision of the world community. In honor of Buck's accomplishments as a humanitarian and a writer, the Pearl S. Buck Award recognizes women whose lives and achievements reflect her commitments. The award carries a $10,000 honorarium.
Jehan met the criteria, according to the college officials.
“As Egypt’s first lady, Sadat played a key role in reforming her country’s civil rights laws. Often called “Jehan’s Laws,” new statutes advanced by Sadat granted women a variety of new rights, including those to alimony and custody of children in the event of divorce,” they said in the statement.
Other achievements include the establishment of the Wafa’ Wa Amal (Faith and Hope) Rehabilitation Center, which offers disabled war veterans medical and rehabilitation services and vocational training, the Talla Society, a cooperative in the Nile Delta region that assists women in becoming self-sufficient; the Egyptian Society for Cancer Patients and the Egyptian Blood Bank; and S.O.S. Children’s Villages in Egypt, an organization that provides orphans new homes in a family environment.
Former president Anwar Sadat was assassinated in 1981 by radical Islamists for establishing peace with Israel, which still occupies the West Bank and the Syrian Golan Heights – Albawaba.com
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
