ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Rudaw Media Network has presented the 2025 Shifa Gardi Award to Leila Molana-Allen, a British-Iranian journalist who is dedicated to reporting the truth from dangerous conflict and war zones.
Shifa Gardi was Rudaw’s news anchor and reporter who was killed by an improvised explosive device while covering the fight against the Islamic State (ISIS) on February 25, 2017. In honor of her memory, Rudaw grants the Shifa Gardi Award each year to a prominent female war correspondent.
Leila Molana-Allen has been named this year's winner by the Shifa Gardi Award jury.
Born in London to a British father and an Iranian mother, Allen currently serves as a roving special correspondent for PBS. She focuses on conflicts and wars in the Middle East and Africa.
Allen has reported from volatile regions, including the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, Syria and Sudan. She has additionally covered stories across other parts of Africa and the United Kingdom.
Throughout her career, Allen has worked with several world-renowned news organizations, including Al-Jazeera, NBC News and the BBC.
"Thank you for this great honor, thank you to the judges for this recognition of my work, and thank you to the artist Hamid Nikkhah for designing the beautiful and inspiring statuette. I am deeply moved to win this award in Shifas memory and to join the list of past winners, trailblazing conflict journalists who I deeply admire and who I am lucky to call colleagues and friends,” Allen stated.
“What we are doing is a great honor, but it can be very painful. I am very happy to have the support of my wonderful family and beautiful friends. I haven't seen them as different from those who are lucky and live in peace, so I do this,” she added.
Allen said on X that she was "incredibly honored" to win the award.
Rob Beynon, a member of the Shifa Gardi Award jury and one of the people who had trained Gardi and her colleagues at the beginning of Rudaw's establishment, said Allen’s capabilities remind us of Gardi.I’m incredibly honoured to win the Shifa Gardi Award for Conflict Journalist of the Year. I’m moved to win this in Shifa’s memory, so tragically killed reporting on Mosul’s frontline in 2017, and to join past winners @clarissaward @bbclysedoucet @AlexCrawfordSky @IamArwaDamon. pic.twitter.com/VATOK5Tlwy
— Leila Molana-Allen (@Leila_MA) February 25, 2025
Beynon added that Allen “was in Syria recently after the fleeing of Assad and she uncovered much of the suffering and the human challenges that had been left behind. She’s also been in Sudan, a country that has been ravaged by civil strife.”
“Rudaw established the Shifa Gardi Award to honor the work of brave, fearless and talented female journalists who, like Shifa, cover challenging stories, warzones, disasters and civil wars,” Beynon explained.
In addition to being a war reporter, Allen has also worked as a filmmaker. She holds a bachelor's degree in ancient and modern history from Oxford University and a master's degree in journalism from Columbia University.
Adrian Wells, director of the European News Exchange (ENEX), said: “Thank you to Rudaw for this continuing commitment, to not just mourn the loss of one of your most talented reporters but to remember a legacy. The life of a journalist who paid the ultimate price in the pursuit of truth.”
"If we don't remember them, we will fail to uphold the principles they fought for. Today we know for sure that Shifa wants us to continue her work. Of course, this year's winner, Leila Maulana Allen, will do the same,” he added.
“Congratulations to Leila and Rudaw for her commitment to the path of healing and her professional and courageous journalistic duty,” Wells said.
With this award, Allen joins a group of female journalists who have been awarded the Shifa Gardi Award.
Winners of the Shifa Gardi Award:
2024: Clarissa Ward, CNN
2023: Isobel Yeung, Voice News
2022: Lyse Doucet, BBC
2021: Alex Crowford, Sky News
2020: Arwa Damon, CNN
2019: Jenan Moussa
