French journalist and author Annick Cojean on tour in Australia

It is a great honour for us to be welcoming Annick Cojean on the occasion of her tour organised by the Alliances Françaises in Australia. If her interviews with personalities like Princess Diana brought her into the public eye, it was her series of articles such as those dedicated to the Holocaust that established her as one of the greatest French journalists of our time. It was indeed because of the latter series of articles that she won the prestigious Prix Albert Londres, over which she presides today.

Annick Cojean is also one of the rare journalists to report on violence against women, particularly in war zones, which has contributed notably to her reputation as an international correspondent. The documentary on which she worked with Manon Loizeau in 2017, (which you can watch below) in Arabic, subtitled in French, deals with the everyday life of Syrian women who, in front of the camera, recount the rape and torture they endured in the jails of Bashar al-Assad.

And what can we say about her investigation into the future of women under the Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi who is as cruel as he is cynical? Published in 2012 under the French title Les Proies : dans le harem de Kadhafi, it is also available in English [Gaddafi's Harem: The Story of a Young Woman and the Abuses of Power in Libya] .

     

Gaddafi's Harem published in 2012         Annick Cojean's latest book "I would not have arrived here if... 27 women recount" published in 2018

In an interview in January 2019, Annick Cojean asks herself “… how can you not be struck by the fact that […] being born a woman, in the majority of countries in the world, leads to a life of suffering? Girls are fed less, less educated, beaten, married young and forced into seclusion. They have no control over their own destiny. However, it is they who single-handedly support our families and societies. Reducing the inequality between men and women seems to me the battle of the 21^st century”.

Annick Cojean will be at the Alliance Francaise de Melbourne on the 20th of February at 6:30pm for a discussion in English with Isabelle Mangeot-Hewison. Don't miss out!

Article written by Michel Richard
Translation by Ilaria O'Brien