Prague, March 8 (CTK) – President Milos Zeman has received the 2015 “Sour Frog” mock award for his sexist statements about women in burkas and two Czech girls kidnapped in Pakistan from the Frog on the Spring association, it announced yesterday.
The association will present its awards tonight after a seven-year break.
Zeman was awarded for his reaction to two young women who were kidnapped in Pakistan in 2013 and released last March.
“I will definitely not meet these girls. They acted very imprudently, they did not benefit the Czech Republic, they caused worries to themselves, their families, acquaintances and friends and all of the Czech state,” Zeman told Frekvence 1 radio station last March.
Zeman pronounced the second nominated sexist statement in a debate with the employees of a local butcher’s shop during his visit to the Zlin Region, south Moravia, last October. He presented his vision of the migrants’ invasion of the Czech Republic.
“We will be deprived of the women’s beauty since they will be shrouded in burkas from head to toe, including the face… Well, I can imagine women for whom it would mean an improvement, but there are few of them and I cannot see any such here,” Zeman said.
Association director Dana Radova said Zeman had excused himself from yesterday’s award-giving ceremony since he was visiting the Karlovy Vary Region, west Bohemia. However, the association is discussing with the Presidential Office another date to present the award, she added.
The second mock prize went to journalist Pavel Paral, from the Euro weekly, for his article entitled “Femi-Nazis in Action” about the abolished exhibition of female nudes on the Science Academy (AV) premises, and the third to reporter Skarlett Wilkova, from Mlada fronta Dnes, for her article “Gender Madness” about an assessment of school textbooks from a gender-oriented perspective.
Other nominees for the mock awards were former President Vaclav Klaus, former education minister Marcel Chladek, American presidential candidate Donald Trump and anti-Islam activist Martin Konvicka.
On the other hand, the “Golden Frog” positive awards were bestowed to three people for their critical reaction to the exhibition of nude photographs dubbed “Women: Scenes in the Library” in the Science Academy (AV) Library within the Week of Science and Technology last autumn.
The Gender Expert Chamber of the Czech Republic and the Women’s Congress called the exhibition “sexist” and the library closed it early due to the protests.
The Golden Frog was bestowed to lawyer Barbora Havelkova, who is lecturing at Oxford University, the second prize went to Respekt reporter Silvia Lauder and the third to Novy prostor reporter Rad Bandit for their articles challenging the controversial exhibition.
The association renewed its awards this year. The previous mock award went to Petr Necas in 2008 who was then labour and social affairs minister.
