Javed Akhtar has won the prestigious Richard Dawkins Award this year. Shabana Azmi took to social media to congratulate her husband.
Acclaimed writer and lyricist Javed Akhtar has always been an ardent advocate of secularism and freedom of speech. Despite serious criticism from various quarters and trolling on social media for his stance against religious fundamentalism, the veteran writer never conforms to rules that are at loggerheads with his thinking. At the same time, he never thought his ideas would travel as far as Center for Inquiry, which has honoured him with the prestigious Richard Dawkins Award.
Javed Akhtar's wife, Shabana Azmi is proud and took to social media to congratulate him on achieving this unique feat. She wrote, "Congratulations Javed Akhtar for unanimously winning the prestigious Richard Dawkins Award 2020 for critical thinking and advancing humanist values -the only Indian to have won it to date. Previous recipients include Bill Maher and Christopher Hitchens . It doesn't get bigger than this (sic)."
Javed Akhtar's daughter Zoya Akhtar is super excited for her father's achievement. She wrote, "So my dad just won the prestigious Richard Dawkins Award 2020 for Critical Thinking and advancing Humanist Values. He is the only Indian to have done so. Previous recipients include Bill Maher, Stephen Fry, Ricky Gervais and Christopher Hitchens. Super excited for him (sic)."
Javed Akhtar is the first Indian to earn the recognition presented by the Center for Inquiry (CFI). As the CFI website cites, "The recipient will be a distinguished individual from the worlds of science, scholarship, education, or entertainment, who publicly proclaims the values of secularism and rationalism, upholding scientific truth wherever it may lead."
Javed Akhtar is the first Indian to earn the recognition presented by the Center for Inquiry (CFI). As the CFI website cites, "The recipient will be a distinguished individual from the worlds of science, scholarship, education, or entertainment, who publicly proclaims the values of secularism and rationalism, upholding scientific truth wherever it may lead."
The Richard Dawkins Award is an annual award that was presented by the Atheist Alliance of America till July 2019, when it moved to the Center for Inquiry (CFI). The award has been presented since 2003, and is named after Richard Dawkins, an English evolutionary biologist and author.