Advocacy & Aid

The Marie-Ange Garrigue Prize is awarded annually to those who have provided significant help to a writer or journalist outside Canada who has faced threats, violence, harassment, or imprisonment for reporting or commenting on issues of public interest. Past recipients include journalists, paralegals, and human rights activists. The 2026 prize is currently open for nominations from the public and civil society peers – we encourage any PEN supporter to submit a nomination. 

“The more people like my work, the more I face challenges and obstacles in Kurdistan. They’ve tried to silence me, even offered me money or to work for them. But I refused, because as a journalist you have to be the voice of those voiceless people.” 

This is Kurdish-Canadian journalist Diary Marif persisting in his advocacy and journalism. He began his work as a journalist in Kurdistan when he was 22, eventually becoming an editor and then a documentary researcher for television. Now living in Vancouver, he has gone on to write for New Canadian Media and the CBC, covering stories about newcomer issues in Canada and Kurdish issues in the Middle East. 

Diary’s advocacy work was recognized last year when he was awarded the Marie-Ange Garrigue Prize for documenting, fundraising, and calling for government intervention against the imprisonment of journalists in Iraqi Kurdistan, including Sherwan Sherwani. 

This year’s prize is currently seeking nominations from the public and our peers – we encourage any PEN supporter to submit a nomination. 

We caught up with the previous recipient, who told us details behind his five years of advocacy and how he continues his journalism with responsibility and optimism:

You grew up and began your journalism career in Iraqi Kurdistan. Tell us the origin of your interest in journalism, and what was going on in the region at the time. What sparked your need to tell stories?

Diary: After the US invasion of Iraq in 2003 and the fall of former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein, there was a wave of corruption, illegality, nepotism, and burglary. Kurdish society in northern Iraq, known as the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), divided into an upper caste and a lower caste. The upper caste were those who were in power, their relatives, their friends, and those who had a lot of money. They  did nothing, but yet they received money from other parts of society. I belong to the lower caste: in my village, Bardabal, Slemani, where the majority of people work hard, there was inequality, fear, brutality and violence. Our village and other remote areas were ignored, not only by society, but by media and human rights organizations.

When I began my journalism career in 2007, I wrote about social issues and political challenges. I became an editor and then a documentary researcher for television. That was until I was threatened to be killed or leave the country. I chose the second. 

When I moved to Canada in 2017, I continued my journalism. Now I write about marginalized people and newcomers, those who have no opportunities in mainstream media – immigrant artists, writers, and journalists. 

Last year you won the Marie-Ange Garrigue Prize for advocating for your friend and fellow journalist Sherwan Sherwani, as well as four other journalists imprisoned in Iraq. Tell us more about your advocacy.

Diary: In October 2020, Sherwan and the others were arrested in Kurdistan. A few days later, I began my campaign in Canada by writing an article about them. I then held several online workshops and seminars about their case, with people joining from Kurdistan, Canada, and other parts of the world. I also campaigned, sending a letter to the Prime Minister, the Foreign Minister and several members of Parliament about the situation. Because of this, when I travelled to Kurdistan, my advocacy meant it was no longer safe for me. 

Sherwan began a hunger strike in April 2026 – his situation has deteriorated. He continues to have no rights in jail, he’s not allowed to read, and he’s not safe.

You campaigned for Sherwan for over five years. What would your advice be to somebody who is at the start of their journey of campaigning for a writer in peril? 

Diary: In any field, any career, particularly in media, you must be professional. Do not put your personal interests above the ethics of journalism. Regardless of nationality, colour, or language – just focus on the journalism. If someone writes about justice and equality, they should write about all kinds of justice and equality. 

What I did for Sherwan, I would do for any other writer in peril, regardless of whether he was my friend or not. If anyone were in his position, I would write about it — and I do. I write about other journalists in other parts of the world. My focus should be on my writing, not if it will cost me my job or my career. As a journalist, you have to write with professionalism, with the ethics and standards of journalism.

What does receiving recognition like the Marie-Ange Garrigue Prize do for an advocate like you? 

Diary: I now have more confidence. This process taught me don’t give up and be resilient. I didn’t think about any reward, but when I worked hard and acted from my heart, PEN Canada offered me the award, so there was some good I got in return – like karma. 

Because Sherwan Sherwani’s life has since been put at greater risk, I now have more responsibilities to write about him, about other journalists and people who are imprisoned. I have to be vocal, I feel a sense of responsibility because of the prize. 

You’ve done advocacy and journalism in both Canada and Iraq – talk about the differences of working in these two regions. 

Diary: There were challenges on both sides. When I was working as a journalist in Iraqi Kurdistan, I was targeted in many ways — not only by the authorities, but by the militias who didn’t like my work. They tried to break me. There were also challenges within the media industry: small groups of journalists within each media backed each other, but I was not part of them. In many ways, I was excluded. And there were spies embedded within the places where I worked. Anything I did the authorities knew about. I realized I was not safe anymore. 

Then I came to Canada, where I found myself not part of mainstream media. I wrote about international issues that affect Canada, such as issues in the Middle East, Palestine, Ukraine, Russia, and other places. The way I write, the mainstream media doesn’t accept it. On the other hand, there is a lot of support for journalists like me among Canadian media outlets and organizations like PEN – I couldn’t find this kind of support in my home country.

What continues to give you hope despite the continued challenges facing independent media and investigative journalism in the Kurdistan region?

Diary: Regimes will always want to hide reality. They try to bully journalists, or silence them by making threats, causing car accidents, or spreading rumours and scandals. These types of regimes will use social media, TV, radio, and newspapers to mislead people and spread propaganda. But we learn from history and other regimes: the more a government spreads propaganda, spends money, and creates militias, the sooner they collapse.

I am a very optimistic person. I have no hope that the situation in Kurdistan will change soon, and yet hope guides us to a better situation. 

Let me give you an example: In the 1980s, Saddam Hussein brought weapons to kill the Kurdish people. He destroyed my village and all houses in the village. After he withdrew from Kurdistan, we returned and started from scratch. My father built a house from Saddam’s left-behind weapons, my sisters planted flowers in the gun shells, my mother planted trees among the cannons. When I started school, instead of a chair I sat on the gun magazines. In a way, this is how we killed Saddam, but not with weapons. Someone came to kill us with a gun, we turned the gun to a pen.

This interview has been edited for length.