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Women Courage Awards

Facing down retaliation in world’s most dangerous places to report

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International Women’s Media Foundation

The IWMF has announced the recipients of its 36th annual Courage in Journalism Awards, honouring women who have reported under duress to expose the truth.

The 2025 honorees are Sana Atef, operating under a pseudonym from Afghanistan; Juliana Dal Piva, a Brazilian investigative journalist; Yousra Elbagir, a Sudanese British international broadcast journalist, and United States Mexican news service founder Maritza L Félix.

Azerbaijani journalist Aynur Elgunesh — the Editor-in-Chief of Meydan TV — received the IWMF’s 2025 Wallis Annenberg Justice for Women Journalists Award, which is given each year to a journalist who is unjustly detained, jailed or imprisoned.

Arrested on fabricated charges of smuggling, Elgunesh remains in prison under life-threatening conditions, silenced by a regime that fears her reporting.

For journalists worldwide, the challenges to report – and the decline of press freedom – mean risking their careers and their lives. For more than three decades, the IWMF’s Courage in Journalism Awards have highlighted remarkable achievements in reporting that help global audiences better understand our world and expose otherwise hidden truths.

‘The IWMF honors Aynur, Juliana, Maritza, Sana and Yousra this year because of the lengths they’ve gone to report and the odds they’ve faced to cover issues that define today’s world,’ said IWMF Executive Director Elisa Lees Muñoz.

‘In a time when press freedom is under siege, the courage of these women cuts through silence and fear. Journalism like theirs doesn’t just inform — it defends democracy’

  • Atef risks arrest or death each time she files a story for one of the last remaining non-state news outlets in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan
  • Dal Piva has been sued, harassed and threatened for uncovering corruption and human rights abuses in Brazil’s halls of power
  • Broadcast journalist Elbagir has covered warzones across Africa – including in her native Sudan – while navigating danger and displacement
  • Félix launched an independent news service from her kitchen table to amplify and inform migrant voices

‘These year’s Courage Award winners have inspired remarkable impact while facing retaliation in the world’s most dangerous places to report,’ said the selection committee of the 2025 IWMF Courage in Journalism Awards.

‘Each awardee has persevered to tell the stories of people who have been censored and repressed with care and fortitude. It is an honour to recognise these five women for their outstanding contributions to journalism.’

The Courage in Journalism Awards are made possible by Bank of America, the awards’ National Presenting Sponsor for 19 consecutive years. The IWMF would like to thank Bank of America for its commitment to journalism and the pursuit of press freedom.

The 2025 IWMF Courage in Journalism Award winners will be recognised during a luncheon in New York City, on 10 November, an evening reception in Washington, D.C., on 16 November and an evening reception in Los Angeles on 18 November.

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