The Wet Gunpowder Award (Persian: جایزه باروت خیس) is an Iranian symbolic award that according to organizers, is given to "ridiculous people whose chaffy character is evident to everyone and when this nature of theirs is accompanied with self-belief turns into an indefinite foolishness for them".[1]

Wet Gunpowder Award
VenueKhorramshahr
CountryIran
Presented byBasij
First awarded2013
Most nominationsBenjamin Netanyahu (2)
Websitebarotekhis.ir

The organizers, who have close ties to Basij and Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (The award is unveiled by Basij commander Mohammad Reza Naqdi), claim award winner is "someone who is against the Islamic Revolution" and who “against their own wishes, performs a service to the revolution.”[2][3][4]

The statue of the award is that of brain with dark glasses and hearing aids with a plaque of the Quranic verse: "Unwilling to hear, unwilling to speak, unwilling to see, then, they will not return to the way."[4]

In 2015, they awarded a parody of Golden Bear.[5]

Recipients

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First Lady Michelle Obama, pictured here announcing the winner of 2013 Academy Award for Best Picture, Argo, was inaugural winner. The prize was posted to her via Swiss Embassy in Tehran.[6]
Year Name Nat Org Office holding Rationale
2013 Michelle Obama   First Lady of the United States For "showing the truth about the Academy awards to the world."[2]
2014[7] Catherine Ashton     High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy For meeting Sattar Beheshti's mother and handing Sakharov Prize to Nasrin Sotoudeh and Jafar Panahi[8]
Tarja Cronberg     Member of the European Parliament
Benjamin Netanyahu   Prime Minister of Israel
Shimon Peres   President of Israel
Ban Ki-moon     Secretary-General of the United Nations
John Kerry   United States Secretary of State
Barack Obama   United States President
2015[5] Manuel Valls   Prime Minister of France "For disrespecting religious beliefs despite claiming for Free thought in France"
David Cameron   Prime Minister of the United Kingdom "For disrespecting Iranian President Hassan Rouhani"
Benjamin Netanyahu   Prime Minister of Israel "For killing 578 children in 51 days despite maintaining peaceful face publicly"
Claudia Roth   Vice-President of the Bundestag "For publicly showing her ties to Fitna (2009 presidential election protests)"
John McCain   United States Senator "For above board support of Islamic State of Iraq and Levant and opposition to terrorism at the same time"
2016[9]
Cheryl Boone Isaacs   President of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences "For deliberately removing Muhammad: The Messenger of God from Foreign Language Film nominates in 88th Academy Awards and showing the anti-Islamic nature of Academy Awards"
Juergen Boos   Director of the Frankfurt Book Fair "For inviting Salman Rushdie and demonstrating the Zionist and anti-Islamic nature of this festival"
François Hollande   President of France "For awarding Legion of Honour to Derayeh Derakhshesh, cultural opposition of Iran"
Piers Handling   Director of the Toronto International Film Festival "For screening Septembers of Shiraz and demonstrating the anti-Iranian nature of this festival"

Special awards

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Year Name Nat Office holding Award Rationale
2015 Dieter Kosslick   Director of the Berlin International Film Festival "Goldean Bear" For "devaluation of Arts" with awarding an "anti-Iranian movie" [Taxi by Jafar Panahi][5]

References

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  1. ^ "Ashton, Cronberg Receive Symbolic 'Wet Gunpowder' Award". Fars News Agency. March 17, 2014. Retrieved March 17, 2015.
  2. ^ a b Esfandiari, Golnaz (April 2, 2013). "Iran's Basij Awards U.S. First Lady Over Oscars Announcement". Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. Retrieved March 17, 2015.
  3. ^ Johnson, Eliana (April 1, 2013). "Michelle Obama Receives Iranian Group's 'Wet Gunpowder' Award". National Review. Retrieved March 17, 2015.
  4. ^ a b Karami, Arash (April 2, 2013). "Michelle Obama Receives Iranian Group's 'Wet Gunpowder' Award". Al-Monitor. Retrieved March 17, 2015.
  5. ^ a b c جایزه «باروت خیس» به نخست وزیر فرانسه رسید (in Persian). Mehr News Agency. March 17, 2015. Retrieved March 17, 2015.
  6. ^ ایران جایزه باروت خیس را برای همسر اوباما پست می‌کند. BBC Persian (in Persian). March 31, 2013. Retrieved March 17, 2015.
  7. ^ نادری نامزدهای نهایی جایزه باروت خیس را اعلام کرد. Iranian Students' News Agency (in Persian). March 7, 2014. Retrieved March 17, 2015.
  8. ^ Lucas, Scott (March 18, 2014). "Iran: Regime Gives "Wet Gunpowder Award" to EU's Ashton". EA WorldView. Retrieved March 17, 2015.
  9. ^ جایزه باروت خیس به رئیس آکادمی اسکار رسید. Mehr News Agency (in Persian). March 15, 2016. Retrieved September 17, 2016.