Roshanak Taghavi, a correspondent for
the Christian Science Monitor posted this article on April 17,
entitled: "Nobel laureate Shirin Ebadi speaks out against Iran
sanctions." The subtitle read: "Shirin Ebadi, the first
Iranian to win a Nobel Peace Prize, also spoke with the Monitor about
her fight for human rights in Iran and challenged the supreme
leader's role." [Note: the piece is reproduced as it ran on-line, though you will notice that the heading following paragraph two seems inappropriate for what comes after it ~ I have no explanation, but thought a simple "sic" might be even more puzzling.]
Nobel Laureate and human rights lawyer
Shirin Ebadi begins her book, The Golden Cage: Three Brothers, Three
Choices, One Destiny, with this famous quote from Iranian sociologist
Ali Shariati. It is also how Ms. Ebadi has chosen to
live her life, even if it means self-imposed exile.
“In Iran, human rights activists are
either in prison or they are incommunicado, meaning no one can talk
to them and it's basically impossible for them to have any activity.
Unfortunately at the present time, a lot of people ... are afraid to
talk. This is why I've remained outside Iran, and work for Iran from
where I am,” says Ebadi, who moved to London after Iran's contested
2009 presidential elections. “If something happens in the world, it
has to be told so that others will find out about it. It must be
known by the world.”
5 ways Iranians and Americans are
surprisingly similar
Ebadi, a prominent critic of the
Iranian regime, has lived abroad ever since accusations of fraud in
the 2009 prompted unprecedented dissent, and the government cracked
down hard.
But despite her animosity towards
Iran's government, the Iranian human rights lawyer and activist says
that the harsh economic sanctions currently imposed against Iran have
been misguided. Intended to pressure Tehran into making concessions
on its controversial nuclear program, the sanctions are achieving
more harm than good and failing to weaken the Iranian regime,
according to the Nobel laureate.
“I do not agree with sanctions that
hurt people,” says Ebadi in a phone interview a day after April 14
talks between Tehran and the international powers known as P5+1 about
Iran's nuclear program.
Though talks ended on a positive note,
with negotiations slated to continue in Baghdad on May 23, Ms. Ebadi
claims it's too quick to predict if and how Iran's nuclear
negotiators will ultimately follow through.
“We have to see what the results are.
Up to today, they've always used negotiations to buy time. In this
regard, we have to wait for the second round of negotiations.”
But while the bulk of international
attention on Iran is focused on its nuclear program, human rights
violations in the Islamic Republic often go relatively unnoticed.
In 2011, Iran executed more than 360
people, making it the No. 2 country for capital punishment after
China, with nearly nine times more executions than the US, according
to the Guardian.
Since Iran's disputed 2009 presidential
election, the Iranian government has engaged in a broad crackdown on
journalists, political opposition figures, activists, and students.
As of late 2011, 49 journalists and bloggers remained in prison, and
lawyers seeking to represent rights activists have faced mounting
pressure from security authorities, with a number of prominent
lawyers currently facing stiff prison sentences or long-term bans
from practicing law, according to a 2012 Human Rights Watch report.
Three of those lawyers – currently
imprisoned on charges of acting against national security –
co-founded the now-banned Defenders of Human Rights Center with Ebadi.
Ebadi is seeking to leverage her
international credibility to increase American awareness of human
rights violations in Iran during a tour of US cities she launched
last week in Minneapolis.
Ebadi became Iran's first female judge
in 1969, during the tenure of former monarch Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.
After's Iran's 1979 revolution, the institution of the Islamic
Republic brought with it the demotion of all female judges, including
Ebadi. Rather than work in a lower position in a court she once
presided over, she chose to retire early from the Iranian judiciary
and did not practice law again until 1992, when she received a permit
to open her own legal practice.
In 2003, she became both the first
Muslim woman and the first Iranian to win a Nobel Peace Prize for her
legal work in advancing the rights of women, children, and refugees
in Iran.
Women have limited rights in personal
matters such as marriage and inheritance. A woman needs the
permission of a male guardian to marry, and once married needs her
husband's written permission to travel outside the country. She also
has limited child custody rights.
Today, the Iranian lawyer and activist
says that for Iran to become truly democratic, both the Iranian
Constitution and the country's judiciary system, which is heavily
controlled by the clergy, must change.
Speaking by phone Sunday from
Minneapolis, where she kick-started an eight-city lecture tour, Ms.
Ebadi said the Islamic Republic's unique system of clerical rule, in
which Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei acts as “Guardian
Jurist” with final say in all matters of state, must also be
amended.
In a democratic, secular Iran, a
Supreme Leader, would have no role in governance, says Ebadi. “The
Constitution and the legal structure of the judicial system must be
changed. When I speak about a secular democracy, naturally I am
speaking of the separation of church and state and religion from
government,” she says.
But she is quick to add that the
decision to amend Iran's laws must be made by the people themselves
in a free and fair vote, and expressed hope that Iran's transition
towards democracy and free political participation can be achieved
peacefully.
Ebadi's call for change in Iran's
Constitution differs from the views of prominent affiliates of Iran's
so-called Green Movement, such as former president Mohammad Khatami
and opposition figures Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi, who
have all called for the Islamic Republic to “return” to Iran's
post-Revolutionary Constitution, which they claim the current regime
has violated.
But differences of opinion such as
these is exactly the point of a democracy, says the Nobel laureate.
“That is the way it is. People have different views,” she says.
“The Green movement isn't an
ideological movement. It's a civil movement. And all of those who are
unhappy with the present government can be part of it, even if they
have different political views. They just want to improve the
situation,” she says.
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