I really like my job. It can be tough and demanding but also enriching. Last year I was coordinating the communication campaign for the Sakharov Prize. European Parliament gives it every year to those who fight for human rights, promote  democracy etc. As it was also the 20th anniversary of the Prize, we decided to invite all the previous laureates and make a round table at December plenary.

Fight for human rights is tough

Not all of them could come (some are already dead) but 16 personalities confirmed that they would show up. As the time of debate approached, I was getting nervous. We had plenty of things to do – write stories, make interviews, organize people.

All in all, I was pretty down and tired when the debate started. To tell the truth – I did not expect a lot from it. Just had a feeling that there would be too many speakers,  the moderator would be extremely diplomatic and the laureates would skip from one topic to the other. However, one of them was different.

 The speech of a Bangladeshi fighter for women’s rights Taslima Nasreen left me speechless. She was talking slowly, with a lot of sorrow. No pathos, no slogans, no bullshit. Just the reality.

Islamic fundamentalists forced her to leave Bangladesh. After 10 years in Europe, she moved to India. However, radicals kicked her out again. “Since I was thrown out of India recently, I have been living in hotels, at friends’ houses. I have no home. I am homeless everywhere,” she said.

Man she really got me. You could hear from her voice how much she has suffered. She misses her language, culture, country. But after all she also said: “Sakharov Prize gives me encouragement to go on fighting in this difficult situation.”

No pathos, no slogans, no bullshit. Just the reality.

Sometimes, when you are too close to the painting you do not get the whole picture. It is like looking at Monet and seeing blurry blots. Just need to step back for a while. I had the same feeling that evening. I left all the organizational stuff and looked for a while at the result.

She also showed me what is the price of fighting for good thing. And I realized I do not have guts to do something similar. All I have guts for is write a story somewhere … on a blog. But is it enough?