CAIRO – An Iraqi young woman has been honored in the prestigious Princess of Asturias for International Cooperation, for being part of the Wikipedia team, in recognition of their efforts to offer free access of information to people worldwide.
“At its meeting in Oviedo, the Jury for the 2015 Princess of Asturias Award for International Cooperation… has decided to confer the 2015 Princess of Asturias Award for International Cooperation on Wikipedia, the open-access digital encyclopedia created in 2001 by American Jimmy Wales,” Princess of Asturias Foundation (FPA) said in a statement published on its website.
“The Jury has valued this important example of international, democratic, open and participatory cooperation −to which thousands of people of all nationalities contribute selflessly− that has managed to make universal knowledge available to everyone along similar lines to those achieved by the encyclopedic spirit of the 18th century.”
Donning her hijab, Ravan J. Al-taie appeared on Thursday as a member of the Wikipedia team honored at Oviedo´s Teatro Campoamor.
The FPA said that Eng. Al-Taie has cooperated passionately in the Arabic section of Wikipedia, considering it as a gate through which she can get more information about the world.
“Cooperation is what Wikipedia is all about, and it is a tremendous honor to be recognized by the Princess of Asturias Awards,” Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia, said.
“I hope this inspires more people to become involved in the mission to share in the sum of all knowledge with the world.”
The Princess of Asturias Foundation is a non-profit private institution whose essential aims are to contribute to extolling and promoting those scientific, cultural and humanistic values that form part of the universal heritage of humanity and consolidate the existing links between the Principality of Asturias and the title traditionally held by the heirs to the Crown of Spain.