Egyptian Women Awarded Pulitzer Prize for the First Time

Associated Press (AP) journalists Maggie Michael and Nariman El-Mofty won on Monday a Pulitzer Prize in international reporting alongside Yemeni Maad al-Zikry for their coverage of Yemen’s civil war, becoming the first Egyptian women to ever win the prestigious award.

Maggie Michael is an Egyptian reporter based in Cairo. Her work has covered political and religious conflict in the Middle East.

Meanwhile, Nariman Ayman El-Mofty is a Canadian-Egyptian photojournalist covering Egypt, Yemen and other parts of the Mideast.

What was their work?

Dubbed the worst humanitarian crisis in the world, the team spent a year documenting torture, graft and starvation in Yemen.

“Their images and stories, gathered at times under dangerous conditions, made a difference”, said AP about their work.

At least 80 prisoners were released from secret detention sites controlled by the United Arab Emirates after one of their reports, according to AP. A Houthi leader ordered an investigation of rebel-run prisons, saying that torture was “unforgivable”.

The United Nations also rushed food and medicine to areas where the AP revealed that people were starving and threatened to cut off aid to Houthi-controlled areas unless corrupt food diversions stopped.

The prizes were announced in New York at Columbia University. One of the most prestigious for journalism, the Pulitzer Prize is an award celebrating achievements in newspaper, magazine and online journalism, as well as literature, and musical composition.