Secularist of the Year

Secularist of the Year, also known as the Irwin Prize, is an award presented annually in the United Kingdom by the National Secular Society in "recognition of an individual or an organisation considered to have made an outstanding contribution to the secularist movement."^[1]

Secularist of the Year
Irwin Prize
The Secularist of the Year poster used at the award ceremony
Awarded for	Making an outstanding contribution to the secularist movement
Location	London
Country	United Kingdom
Presented by	National Secular Society
Reward(s)	£5000
First award	2005
Website	www.secularism.org.uk/soty

The award was established in 2005, and until 2017 it was sponsored by and named after humanist and secularist campaigner Dr. Michael Irwin. The prize consisted of a trophy, the "Golden Ammonite", and a cheque for £5000. The last time Secularist of the Year was awarded was in 2019.^[1]

List of recipients

List of recipients of the Secularist of the Year

Year	Portrait	Name	Citation[1]	Presenter	Ref.
2005		Maryam Namazie	For "her work in defence of women's rights and the right to freedom of expression"	Polly Toynbee	[2]
2006		Steve Jones	For "his contribution to the promotion of secularism"	Dick Taverne	[3]
2007		Mina Ahadi	For "her life opposing the mistreatment of women by the Iranian clerical regime"	Joan Smith	[4]
2008	Not awarded
2009		Eric Lubbock	For "their work in the abolition of blasphemy law"	Richard Dawkins	[5][6]
		Evan Harris
2010	—	Southall Black Sisters[a]	For "their support of black and Asian women's human rights"	Michael Irwin	[7]
2011		Sophie in 't Veld	For "her work as chair of the European Parliamentary Platform for Secularism in Politic"	A. C. Grayling	[8]
2012		Peter Tatchell	For "his lifelong commitment to the defence of human rights against religious fundamentalism"	Nick Cohen	[9]
2013	—	Plan UK[b]	"In honour of young human rights activist Malala Yousafzai, the prize was donated to Plan UK" for its campaign to ensure equal access to education for girls worldwide.	Michael Cashman	[10]
2014		Şafak Pavey	For "her international work promoting secularism, Human Rights and gender equality as well as humanitarian aid and peace-building"	Kerry McCarthy	[11]
2015		Charlie Hebdo[c]	For "its courageous response to the terror attack on its Paris office and defence of secularism"	Martin Rowson	[12]
2016	—	Educate Together[d]	For "its work in challenging religious discrimination/privilege in Ireland's education system and setting out a positive vision for inclusive secular education"	Julia Hartley-Brewer	[13]
2017		Yasmin Rehman	For "her advocacy of a secularist approach to tackling hate crime, promoting social cohesion and the human rights of women, and challenging sectarianism and theocracy"	Yasmin Alibhai-Brown	[14]
2018	—	Phil Johnson	For "their courageous campaigning work over many years to expose the institutional abuse of children and vulnerable adults in the Church of England"	Peter Tatchell	[15]
	—	Graham Sawyer			[16]
2019	—	Saif ul-Malook	For "his courageous defense of Asia Bibi and other clients in Pakistan accused of blasphemy"	Geoffrey Robertson	[17][18]

See also

• Religion portal

• List of religion-related awards

Notes

1. The award was accepted by Pragna Patel on behalf of the Southall Black Sisters.^[7]
2. The award was accepted by Debbie Langdon-Davies on behalf of Plan UK.^[10]
3. The award was accepted by Martin Rowson on behalf of Charlie Hebdo.^[12]
4. The award was accepted by Paul Rowe on behalf of Educate Together.^[13]