Shirin Ebadi
In Bangkok, in April of 2005 at the Thailand Foreign Correspondent’s Club I listened to a talk by Shirin Ebadi…a strong brave woman lawyer who won the 2003 Nobel Peace Prize for defending human rights in Iran. Yesterday the NY Times reported (below) that she has been threatened with arrest if she doesn’t close her Center for Defense of Human Rights in Tehran.
Ms Ebadi is a self declared human rights activist, having already been jailed once, and one of the many attorneys who are working together with many of the nearly 200 journalists who are currently incarcerated in Iran. She said that it is impossible to determine the exact number of people jailed for their human rights work because the statistics are not released by the government and families do not want to tell why their members are in jail for fear of reprisal.
Her most adamant point was that violence and war solves nothing but instead intensifies conflict. She added that Iran is not in a position to pose any danger to any of it’s neighbors. Then she continued by saying that it is left up to various Non-Governmental Organizations in Iran to go into neighboring countries with messages.
In describing her work, Ms Ebadi stressed that “the power of the pen is much stronger than the power of arms…the work of the pen can do more than an entire army,” she said.
“So human rights activists are fighting for the freedom of the pen,” she said. “All societies need freedom of expression…the first stepping stone of democracy.” Regarding Burma, she said that the role of mass media is critical and the media should demand that the democratically elected leader and Nobel Prize winner, Aung San Suu Kyi, be given her freedom from house arrest.
She said it is impossible for one person to make a complete change in a country and any change must take place through the people. “The world is a mirror that reflects the good and bad in us eventually,” she concluded.
I am afraid she will suffer reprisal.
Who’s afraid of Shirin Ebadi?
The New York Times
Published: August 15, 2006
Under cover of the international furor over its nuclear activities and its support for Hezbollah, Iran is trying to silence its most prominent human-rights activist, and, by extension, all of the Iranians who speak for fundamental rights.
Shirin Ebadi, the lawyer who won the 2003 Nobel Peace Prize, has been threatened with arrest unless she closes the Center for Defense of Human Rights in Tehran. The center provides free legal representation to journalists, students, and dissidents who face prosecution for peaceful assembly and criticizing the government. Ebadi and the center’s lawyers have represented Iran’s leading dissident, Akbar Ganji. Most recently, Ebadi has been defending women who say they were beaten and detained by the police for demonstrating for women’s rights in June.
One of the center’s co-founders, Abdolfattah Soltani, spent several months in prison last year, and in July drew a five-year sentence on charges of opposing the state and disclosing confidential information to diplomats. He is free awaiting the outcome of his appeal, but there is no timetable for the decision.
In the meantime, other prominent Iranians are languishing in prison, among them, Ali Akbar Mousavi Khoini, a former member of Parliament, who was arrested in June as he prepared to take part in the women’s rights demonstration, and Ramin Jahanbegloo, one of Iran’s best-known scholars, who was arbitrarily arrested in April.”
Tags: Bangkok, Human Rights, Iran, Middle East, Thailand, World Watching And Politics
Zoe
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