Ladies in White

Ladies in White

"A pro-democracy group in Cuba, Ladies in White, has been named a winner of the 2005 Sakharov Prize awarded by the European Parliament. The prize is named for the late Soviet dissident Andrei Sakharov. The award announcement said, "The Ladies in White continue to campaign despite attempts to silence them. International support for their cause has been extensive."

"The Ladies in White was recognized for its weekly peaceful protests against the Cuban government's detention of their husbands and sons. The protests are held each Sunday after church in Havana. The group was formed in March 2003, after the government of dictator Fidel Castro arrested seventy-five independent journalists and individuals running private libraries.

"Elisa Gonzales Padron is the wife of Victor Rolando Arroyo, one of the jailed Cuban journalists. Of the Sakharov prize she says, "It's an honor, not for us, but for our husbands. Ladies in White," she says, "was a spontaneous movement by women who [were] united in pain, [by] a situation the government provoked by jailing our husbands.""