2021 | Christina Lamb, „Our Bodies, Their Battlefield. What War Does to Women" - Instytut Pileckiego

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The Institute / News

2021 | Christina Lamb, „Our Bodies, Their Battlefield. What War Does to Women"

Christina Lamb’s reportage won the Witold Pilecki International Book Award. “Our Bodies, Their Battlefield: What War Does to Women” triumphed in the third category: the special prize for war correspondents.

Mass rape, brutal violence, human trafficking – in her book “Our Bodies, Their Battlefield: What War Does to Women” Christina Lamb describes a number of horrifying phenomena to which women are exposed in the course of warfare. The book is based on the personal testimonies of victims of armed conflicts that took place in the 20th and 21st centuries, including Bangladesh, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Syria. The author shows that violence against women is often a tool of warfare, used deliberately to terrorize certain groups. She explains why in many cases it should not be treated as loosely connected crimes committed by degenerate soldiers, but as war crimes planned by the military leaders.

Christina Lamb is one of the most famous British correspondents, journalist of “The Sunday Times”, and an award-winning author. Her publications include “Farewell Kabul: From Afghanistan to a More Dangerous World” and “The Africa House: The True Story of an English Gentleman and His African Dream”. She also co-authored an international bestseller “I Am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and was Shot by the Taliban”.

Christina Lamb collects the award from Dr. Piotr Cywiński, Director of the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum and Chair of the Awards Committee for the Witold Pilecki International Book Award.

A few weeks before the Awards Committee for the Witold Pilecki International Book Award announced the winner in the third category: the special prize for war correspondents, Alina Nowobilska from the Pilecki Institute conducted a moving interview with the distinguished correspondent. The author revealed her deepest motivation and shared the experiences that prompted her to write this exceptional book:

On 17 November 2021, we had the honor to welcome Christina Lamb during the awards ceremony for the Witold Pilecki International Book Award at the Kubicki Arcades in the Royal Castle in Warsaw. The author of the winning publication personally collected the award.

Apart from a specially-designed statuette, the winner received a cash prize of PLN 75,000.

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