Yassmin Abdel-Magied wins award for free speech

Abdel-Magied wins a free speech award from Melbourne group that has honoured the likes of Gillian Triggs and Waleed Aly.

Activist Yassmin Abdel-Magied.

Outspoken activist Yassmin Abdel-Magied, who claimed to be the “most hated” Muslim in the country before moving to London last year, has won a prestigious prize for free speech.

Human rights group Liberty Victoria yesterday announced that Ms Abdel-Magied had been awarded the 2018 Young Voltaire Award for being a “role model” to young women, Muslims and migrants.

Actress and same-sex marriage activist Magda Szubanski was awarded the 2018 Voltaire award, following in the footsteps of former Australian Rights Commission president Gillian Triggs, TV presenter Waleed Aly and journalist David Marr.

“I won an award for free speech y’all,” Ms Abdel-Magied announced on Twitter.

“This one is for all those young Muslims and POC (people of colour) in Aus and around the world who know their equality is conditional, but know they need to speak anyway. And for all of those who tried to silence me ... Eat your hearts out.”

Ms Abdel-Magied, an engineer turned television presenter, moved to London in September after months of courting controversy. Last April she was accused of disrespecting war veterans with her social media post: “Lest. We. Forget. (Manus, Nauru, Syria, Palestine …)”.

A few months earlier she was involved in a fiery exchange with then senator Jacqui Lambie on ABC’s Q&A program and ­declared Islam to be “the most feminist religion”.

Liberty Victoria president Jessie Taylor said Ms Abdel-­Magied was a “worthy winner”.

“Yassmin is sometimes provocative, but the hate she ­receives is despicable and disproportionate,” she said.

Conservative think-tank the Institute of Public Affairs criticised Liberty Victoria for giving Ms Abdel-Magied the prize.

“I’m struggling to recall anything Ms Abdel-Magied has done to defend freedom of speech,” institute director of policy Simon Breheny said, describing Liberty Victoria as a “fraudulent outfit” for not standing up for victims of anti-free speech laws.