WASHINGTON, DC, September 30, 2022 — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Iranian-American women’s rights activist Masih Alinejad will receive the 2022 Oxi Courage Awards.  The Awards will be presented in Washington, DC on October 27, 2022 at the 12th Annual Washington Oxi Day Foundation Courage Awards at the US Institute of Peace.

Zelenskyy will join live from Ukraine to address those gathered at the Courage Awards.  Alinejad, who is living in a safe house under FBI protection (since August when police arrested a man planning to take her life, just two weeks before a violent assailant operating under similar motivation nearly killed author Salman Rushdie), will appear in person.

Previous recipients of this award have included: 

• President Joe Biden and his son Beau Biden (posthumously); 
• Escaped survivor of ISIS atrocities and UN Goodwill Ambassador Nadia Murad (nominated by Amal Clooney) who two years later received the Nobel Peace Prize (in 2018); 

• TIME Magazine 2018 Persons of the Year journalist and critic of the Philippines’ government Maria Ressa (also nominated by Amal Clooney) who later received the Nobel Peace Prize (in 2021) and journalist and critic of Saudi Arabia’s government Jamal Khashoggi (posthumously); 

• Currently imprisoned for his public opposition to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, twice-poisoned Russian democracy activist and dissident Vladimir Kara-Murza;

• US conflict journalist James Foley (posthumously) [nominated and introduced by former President Bill Clinton], just months after he became the first American brutally and publicly executed by ISIS; and

• North Korean defector and human rights activist Ji Seong-ho, who, just 3 months later, was featured before millions around the world in the President’s State of the Union address.

For a full list of our remarkable honorees, click here.

For more information on the Oxi Courage and Service Awards in Washington, DC on October 27, visit OxiDayFoundation.org.