The Philippine Online Chronicles

Last Saturday night, when world-renowned film star Meryl Streep presented a leadership award for women to former Colombian presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt, it was difficult to tell who was more awestruck, reported The Associated Press.

Betancourt was one of four women honored at the inaugural DVF Awards. The awards, created by fashion designer Diane von Furstenberg, are intended to recognize women working for change in their countries.

Von Furstenberg, best known for introducing the wrap dress in the 1970s, said that the DVF Awards will become an annual event.

Quipping that she didn't know who between the presenters or the honorees were more impressive, Betancourt said, "It's like a dream, being here with Meryl Streep."

Betancourt, a French-Colombian, was kidnapped in 2002 by leftist guerillas with the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC) and was held prisoner for about five and a half years. She was then running for president, and had been abducted while campaigning in a FARC-controlled area.

For her part, Streep wondered how Betancourt had managed not to lose her spirit, despite her years of captivity in the jungle. Streep said she could not imagine "not being destroyed" by such an experience.

Betancourt, 48, was freed along with other hostages in 2008 via Operation Jaque, a rescue operation undertaken by Colombian security forces. The former senator now lives in France, where she was raised.

During an interview before the awards ceremony, Betancourt said that she is not ready to live in Colombia again. Neither does she think that she will run for public office again at present. "We'll see what life brings," she said.

She told the audience on Saturday that she had learned something important during her time in captivity.

"When you have lost everything, when everything that you care about has been taken from you, when you feel your life doesn't belong to you anymore, there's something that nobody can take from you: the freedom to choose who you want to be," she said.

Joining Betancourt at the ceremony was Marc Gonsalves, one of three U.S. military contractors who had been with her as hostages of the FARC guerillas. Gonsalves co-authored a book, Out of Captivity, with his compatriots Keith Stansell and Thomas Howes about their experiences in captivity. Both Stansell and Howes wrote harshly about Betancourt, calling her haughty, self-obsessed, and manipulative.

Betancourt told The Associated Press that she has finished writing a new book. Asked if she would want to be played by Streep in a movie about her life, she replied, "Can you imagine? I would love that."

Another recipient of a DVF award was Sadiqa Basiri Saleem, an Afghan women's rights activist, who received her trophy from CNN anchor Christiane Amanpour. She hoped to use her award money to help build the first Afghan college for women.

The two other honorees were Danielle Saint-Lot, an activist in Haiti, and Katherine Chon, who heads the U.S.-based Polaris Project, an organization that combats human trafficking. Their awards were presented by Melanne Verveer, the U.S. ambassador-at-large for global women's affairs, and ABC's "Good Morning America" co-host Robin Roberts, respectively.

Each honoree received a statue and $50,000 from the Diller-von Furstenberg Family Foundation.

"Every woman in this room is so incredible, it humbles me," said von Furstenberg.

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