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Shirin Ebadi

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شيرين عبادى
Shirin Ebadi
Shirin Ebadi, November 2005
Born (1947-06-21) June 21, 1947 (age 77)
Hamedan, Iran Iran
NationalityIranian
Alma materUniversity of Tehran
Occupation(s)lawyer, founder of Children's Rights Support Association and former judge

Shirin Ebadi (Persian: شيرين عبادى - Ŝirin Ebādi; born 21 June 1947) is an Iranian lawyer, a former judge and human rights activist and founder of Centre for the Defence of Human Rights in Iran. On October 10, 2003, Ebadi was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her significant and pioneering efforts for democracy and human rights, especially women's, children's, and refugee rights. She was the first ever Iranian, and the first Muslim woman to have received the prize.

In 2009, Ebadi's award was allegedly confiscated by Iranian authorities, though this was later denied by the Iranian government.[1] If true, she would be the first person in the history of the Nobel Prize whose award has been forcibly seized by state authorities.[2][3]

Ebadi has lived in exile in the U.K. since June 2009, due to the increase in persecution of Iranian citizens who are critical of the current regime.[4]

Life and early career as a judge

Ebadi was born in Hamadan, Iran. Her father, Mohammad Ali Ebadi, was the city's chief notary public and professor of commercial law. The family moved to Tehran in 1948.

She was admitted to the law department University of Tehran in 1965 and upon graduation in 1969 passed the qualification exams to become a judge. After a six-month internship period, she officially started her judging career in March 1969. She continued her studies in University of Tehran in the meanwhile and received a master's degree in law in 1971. In 1975, she became the first woman to preside over a legislative court.

Following the Iranian revolution in 1979, conservative clerics insisted that Islam prohibits women from becoming judges and Ebadi was demoted to a secretarial position at the branch where she had previously presided. She and other female judges protested and were assigned to the slightly higher position of "law expert." She eventually requested early retirement as the situation remained unchanged.

As her applications were repeatedly rejected, Ebadi was not able to practice as a lawyer until 1993, while she already had a law office permit. She used this free time to write books and many articles in Iranian periodicals, which made her widely known.

Ebadi as a lawyer

Ebadi now lectures law at the University of Tehran and is a campaigner for strengthening the legal status of children and women, the latter of which played a key role in the May 1997 landslide presidential election of the reformist Mohammad Khatami.

As a lawyer, she is known for taking up cases of dissident figures who have fallen foul of the judiciary. She has represented the family of Dariush Forouhar, a dissident intellectual and politician who was found stabbed to death at his home. His wife, Parvaneh Eskandari, was also killed at the same time.

The couple were among several dissidents who died in a spate of grisly murders that terrorized Iran's intellectual community. Suspicion fell on extremist hard-liners determined to put a stop to the more liberal climate fostered by President Khatami, who championed freedom of speech. The murders were found to be committed by a team of the employees of the Iranian Ministry of Intelligence, whose head, Saeed Emami, allegedly committed suicide in jail before being brought to court.

Ebadi also represented the family of Ezzat Ebrahim-Nejad, the only person (a conscript soldier) killed in the Iranian student protests of July 1999. In the process, in 2000 Ebadi was accused of distributing the videotaped confession of Amir Farshad Ebrahimi, a former member of the Ansar-e Hezbollah. Ebrahimi accused his former associates of attacking members of President Khatami's cabinet on orders of high-level conservative authorities. Ebadi claimed that she had only videotaped Amir Farshad Ebrahimi's confessions in order to present them to the court. This case was named "Tape makers" by hardliners who questioned the credibility of his videotaped deposition as well as his motives. Ebadi and Rohami were sentenced to five years in jail and suspension of their law licenses for sending Ebrahimi's videotaped deposition to Islamic President Khatami and the head of the Islamic judiciary. The sentences were later vacated by the Islamic judiciary's supreme court, but they did not forgive Ebarahimi's videotaped confession and sentenced him to 48 months jail, including 16 months in solitary confinement. This case brought increased focus on Iran from human rights groups abroad.

Ebadi has also defended various child abuse cases and a few cases dealing with bans of periodicals (including the cases of Habibollah Peyman, Abbas Marufi, and Faraj Sarkouhi). She has also established two non-governmental organizations in Iran with western funding, the Society for Protecting the Rights of the Child (SPRC) and the Defenders of Human Rights Center (DHRC).

She also helped in the drafting of the original text of a law against physical abuse of children, which was passed by the Iranian parliament in 2002.

Political views

In her book Iran Awakening, Ebadi explains her political/religious views on Islam, democracy and gender equality

In the last 23 years, from the day I was stripped of my judgeship to the years of doing battle in the revolutionary courts of Tehran, I had repeated one refrain: an interpretation of Islam that is in harmony with equality and democracy is an authentic expression of faith. It is not religion that binds women, but the selective dictates of those who wish them cloistered. That belief, along with the conviction that change in Iran must come peacefully and from within, has underpinned my work." [5]

At the same time, Ebadi expresses a nationalist love of Iran and a critical view of the Western world. She opposed the pro-Western Shah, initially supported the Islamic Revolution, remembers the CIA's 1953 overthrow of prime minister Mohammad Mosaddeq with rage.

At a press conference shortly after the Peace Prize announcement, Ebadi herself explicitly rejected foreign interference in the country's affairs: "The fight for human rights is conducted in Iran by the Iranian people, and we are against any foreign intervention in Iran."[6][7]

Subsequently, Ebadi has openly defended the Islamic regime's nuclear development programme:

Aside from being economically justified, it has become a cause of national pride for an old nation with a glorious history. No Iranian government, regardless of its ideology or democratic credentials, would dare to stop the program.[8]

Ebadi also expressed indirectly her views on Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In April 2010 Associated Students of the University of California passed A Bill to In Support of UC Divestment From War Crimes, calling UC to break ties with companies providing technology to the army of Israel. Shirin Ebadi, together with three other Peace Prize laureates, supported the bill.[9]

Nobel Peace Prize

On October 10, 2003, Ebadi was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her courageous efforts for democracy and human rights, especially for the rights of women and children.[10] The selection committee praised her as a "courageous person" who "has never heeded the threat to her own safety".[11] Now she travels abroad lecturing in the West. She is against a policy of forced regime change. Her husband, Javad Tavassolian, was an advisor to President Khatami.

The decision of the Nobel committee surprised some observers worldwide - then Pope John Paul II was the bookies' favourite to scoop the prestigious award amid feverish speculation that he was nearing death. Some observers, mostly supporters of Pope John Paul II, viewed her selection as a calculated and political one, along the lines of the selection of Lech Wałęsa and Mikhail Gorbachev, among others, for the Peace Award. They claimed that none of Ebadi's previous activities were directly related to the stated goals for the award of the Nobel Peace Prize, as originally stated by Alfred Nobel, and that according to the will of Alfred Nobel the prize should have been awarded "to the person who shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between the nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses".[citation needed]

She presented a book entitled, Democracy, human rights, and Islam in modern Iran: Psychological, social and cultural perspectives (2003,Bergen: Fagbokforlaget), to the Nobel Committee. The volume documents the historical and cultural basis of democracy and human rights from Cyrus and Darius, 2,500 years ago to Mohammad Mossadeq, the popular Prime Minister of modern Iran who nationalized the oil industry.

In Iran, officials of the Islamic Republic were either silent or critical of the selection of Ebadi, calling it a political act by a pro-western institution and were also critical when Ebadi did not cover her hair at the Nobel award ceremony.[12] IRNA reported it in few lines that the evening newspapers and the Iranian state media waited hours to report the Nobel committee's decision—and then only as the last item on the radio news update.[13] Reformist officials are said to have "generally welcomed the award", but "come under attack for doing so."[14] Reformist president Mohammad Khatami did not officially congratulate Ms. Ebadi and stated that although the scientific Nobels are important, the Peace Prize is "not very important" and was awarded to Ebadi on the basis of "totally political criteria".[14] Vice President Mohammad Ali Abtahi, the only official to initially congratulate Ebadi, defended the president saying "abusing the President's words about Ms. Ebadi is tantamount to abusing the prize bestowed on her for political considerations".[citation needed]

Post-Nobel prize

Since receiving the Nobel Prize Ebadi has lectured, taught and received awards in different countries, issued statements and defended people accused of political crimes in Iran. She has traveled to and spoken to audiences in India, the United States, and other countries; released her autobiography in an English translation; participated in the Nobel Women's Initiative along with five other Nobel Laureates.

Threats

In April 2008 she told Reuters news agency that Iran's human rights record had regressed in the past two years.[15] and agreed to defend Baha’is arrested in Iran in May 2008.

In April 2008 Ebadi released a statement saying: "Threats against my life and security and those of my family, which began some time ago, have intensified," and that the threats warned her against making speeches abroad, and defending Iran's minority Baha'i community.[16] In August 2008, the IRNA news agency published an article attacking Ebadi's links to the Bahá'í Faith and accused her of seeking support from the West. It also criticized Ebadi for defending homosexuals, appearing without the Islamic headscarf abroad, questioning Islamic punishments, and "defending CIA agents."[17] It accused her daughter, Nargess Tavassolian, of conversion to the Bahá'í faith, a capital offense in the Islamic Republic. Her daughter believes "the government wanted to scare my mother with this scenario." Ebadi believes the attacks are in retaliation for her agreeing to defend the families of the seven Baha’is arrested in May.[18]

In December 2008, Iranian police shut down the office of a human rights group led by her.[19] Another human rights group, Human Rights Watch, has said it was "extremely worried" about Ebadi's safety.[20]

Seizure

Ebadi said while in London in late November 2009 that her Nobel Peace Prize medal and diploma had been taken from their bank box alongside her Légion d'honneur and a ring she had received from Germany's association of journalists.[21] She said they had been taken by the Revolutionary Court approximately three weeks previously.[21][22][23] Ebadi also said her bank account was frozen by authorities.[21][24][25] Norwegian Minister of Foreign Affairs Jonas Gahr Støre expressed its "shock and disbelief" at the incident.[21] The Iranian foreign ministry subsequently denied the confiscation, and also criticised Norway for interfering in Iran's affairs.[26][27]

Post-Nobel Prize timeline

  • 2003 November - She declared that she would provide legal representation for the family of the murdered freelance photographer Zahra Kazemi.
  • 2004 - During the World Social Forum- Bombay, January 2004 - Ebadi, speaking at a small girls' school run by an NGO, "Sahyog", proposed that January 30 (the day Mahatma Gandhi fell to a Hindu extremist's bullets) be observed as International Day of Non-Violence. This proposal was brought to her from school children in Paris by their Indian teacher Akshay Bakaya. 3 years later Sonia Gandhi and Archbishop Desmond Tutu relayed the idea at the Delhi Satyagraha Convention January 2007, preferring however to propose Gandhi's birthday October 2. The UN General Assembly on June 15, 2007 adopted October 2 as the International Day of Non-Violence.
  • 2006 September - Her presentation of a lecture entitled "Iran Awakening: Human Rights, Women and Islam" drew a sold-out crowd at the University of San Diego's Joan B. Kroc Distinguished Lecture Series.
  • 2007 April 12 - She gave a presentation on "Peace and Social Justice in a Global World: The Role of Women and Islam" at the Saint Louis University, Saint Louis, MO. She was the Keynote speaker at The Seventh Annual Atlas Week, a week for global awareness.
  • 2007 April 30 - She gave a presentation on "True Islam: Human Rights and The Roles of Faith" at Loyola University Chicago, Chicago, IL. She also received an honorary doctorate from the university.
  • 2007 May 1 - Shirin appeared at the Performing Arts Center at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, at the request of the Persian Students of Cal Poly to give a lecture which mainly dealt with Democracy, Women's Rights, and American relations in Iran.
  • 2007 May 17 - Ebadi announced that she would defend the Iranian American scholar Haleh Esfandiari, who is jailed in Tehran.[2]
  • 2007 May 18 - Ebadi presided over the Commencement ceremony of The New School at Madison Square Garden in New York. She gave a speech in Persian which was translated by a translator and she also received an honorary PhD from The New School.
  • 2008 March - Ebadi tells Reuters news agency that Iran's human rights record had regressed in the past two years.[15]
  • 2008 April 14 - Ebadi released a statement saying "Threats against my life and security and those of my family, which began some time ago, have intensified," and that the threats warned her against making speeches abroad, and defending Iran's minority Baha'i community.[16]
  • 2008 June - Ebadi volunteered to be the lawyer for the arrested Bahá'í leadership of Iran in June.[29]
  • 2008 1 September - Ebadi published her book Refugee Rights in Iran exposing the lack of rights given to Afghan refugees living in Iran.
  • 2008 December 21 Ebadi's office of the Center for the Defense of Human Rights raided and closed.[33]
  • 2008 December 29 - Islamic authorities close Ebadi's Center for Defenders of Human Rights, raiding her private office, seizing her computers and files.[34] Worldwide condemnation of raid.[20][33]
  • 2009 1 January - Pro-regime "demonstrators" attack Ebadi's home and office.[34]
  • 2009 24 February - Ebadi spoke on the "Empowering women" plenary session at ISFiT[35].
  • 2009 12 June - Ebadi was at a seminar in Spain at the time of Iranian presidential election. "[W]hen the crackdown began colleagues told her not to come home" and as of October 2009 she has not returned to Iran.[36]
  • 2009 24 September - Touring abroad to lobby international leaders and highlight the Islamic regime's human rights abuses since June, Ebadi criticizes the British government for putting talks on the Islamic regime's nuclear programme ahead of protesting its brutal suppression of opposition. Noting the British Ambassador attended President Ahmadinejad’s inauguration, she said, “`That’s when I felt that human rights were being neglected. ... Undemocratic countries are more dangerous than a nuclear bomb. It’s undemocratic countries that jeopardise international peace.`” She calls for "the downgrading of Western embassies, the withdrawal of ambassadors and the freezing of the assets of Iran’s leaders."[36]
  • 2009 November - The Iranian authorities seize Ebadi's Nobel medal together with other belongings from her safe-deposit box.[2]
  • 2009 December 29 - Ebadi’s sister Noushin Ebadi was detained apparently in an effort to silence Ebadi who is abroad.[38] "She was neither politically active nor had a role in any rally. It's necessary to point out that in the past two months she had been summoned several times to the Intelligence Ministry, who told her to persuade me to give up my human rights activities. She has been arrested solely because of my activities in human rights," Ebadi said. [39]

Lawsuits

Lawsuit against the United States

In 2004, Ebadi filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Treasury because of restrictions she faced over publishing her memoir in the United States. American trade laws include prohibitions on writers from embargoed countries. The law also banned American literary agent Wendy Strothman from working with Ebadi. Azar Nafisi wrote a letter in support of Ebadi. Nafisi said that the law infringes on the First Amendment.[40] After a long legal battle, Ebadi won and was able to publish her memoir in the United States.[41]

Lawsuit over non-publication

According to the Associated Press, on August 27, 2007, Ebadi was sued by a Canadian author and political analyst, Shahir Shahidsaless—who writes and publishes in Persian—in U.S. District Court in Manhattan saying she reneged on getting a publisher for a book she had requested him to write under her supervision, titled "A Useful Enemy". The initial suit was dismissed due to lack of jurisdiction of the court, and not the substance of the case, which was never tried. The case is currently being considered at the New York State Court.

Honors and awards

See also

References

  1. ^ Reuters (2009-11-27). "Iran Denies It Confiscated Ebadi's Nobel Medal". The New York Times. Retrieved 2009-11-27. {{cite news}}: |author= has generic name (help); Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  2. ^ a b Iran tells Norway to stay out of Nobel medal row Associated Press 26 November 2009
  3. ^ Norway says Iran confiscated Ebadi's Nobel Reuters November 27
  4. ^ Shirin Ebadi: The Activist in ExileNewsweek March 30th 2010
  5. ^ Ebadi, Shirin, Iran Awakening : A Memoir of Revolution and Hope, by Shirin Ebadi with Azadeh Moaveni, Random House, 2006, p.204
  6. ^ Washington Post: Nobels With a Message, last retrieved on 2007-10-12
  7. ^ Working for Change: Eyes off the prize, last retrieved on 2007-10-12
  8. ^ The Sydney Morning Herald: Sunnis fear US missteps will bolster Tehran's influence, last retrieved on 2007-10-12
  9. ^ "Statement of Support from Nobel Women Peace Laureates". 2010-04-28. Retrieved 2010-05-01.
  10. ^ Nobelprize.org: The Nobel Peace Prize 2003, last retrieved on 2007-10-12
  11. ^ bbc.co.uk: Nobel winner's plea to Iran, last retrieved on 2007-10-12
  12. ^ IRANIAN MUSLIM WOMEN ARE FREE TO WEAR OR NOT THE HEJAB: MOHAMMAD KHATAMI By Safa Haeri
  13. ^ Iran Press Service, IRANIANS CELEBRATED WITH JOY EBADI’S NOBEL PEACE PRIZE By Safa Haeri
  14. ^ a b Khatami advice to Nobel laureate, October 14, 2003
  15. ^ a b Iran to probe threats against Nobel laureate Ebadi
  16. ^ a b BBC NEWS. Top Iranian dissident threatened
  17. ^ Iranian press targets Nobel Prize winner Ebadi
  18. ^ By Attacking Mrs. Shirin Ebadi, The Islamic Republic Revives Stalinian Methods By Safa Haeri
  19. ^ "Iran Shuts Down Nobel Winner's Rights Group". Voice Of America. 2008-12-21. Retrieved 2008-12-22. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help) [dead link]
  20. ^ a b Iranian raid on Ebadi condemned. December 31, 2008
  21. ^ a b c d "Shirin Ebadi Nobel Peace Prize medal 'seized by Iran'". BBC. 2009-11-27. Retrieved 2009-11-27.
  22. ^ http://abclive.in/abclive_global/iran_shirin_ebadi_nobel_peace_medal_tax.html Iran Confiscates Shirin Ebadi’s Nobel Peace Medal in Want of Tax Liability
  23. ^ http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2009/11/27/nobel-iran-ebadi.html Outrage after Iran seizes Nobel medal
  24. ^ "Iran confiscates Shirin Ebadi's Nobel Peace Prize". London: The Daily Telegraph. 2009-11-27. Retrieved 2009-11-27. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  25. ^ "Ebadi defiant despite Iran assets seizure". Bangkok Post. 2009-11-27. Retrieved 2009-11-27. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  26. ^ "Iran denies it confiscated Ebadi's Nobel medal". Reuters. 2009-11-27. Retrieved 2009-11-27.
  27. ^ http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/8383505.stm BB News: Tehran denies seizing Shirin Ebadi's Nobel medal
  28. ^ [1] Nobel Women's Initiative
  29. ^ "Local Baha'is worry about their fellow believers in Iran" (Press release). The Chatham News. 2009-02-24. Retrieved 2009-03-02.
  30. ^ http://www.bahairights.org/2008/08/07/in-court-i-will-defend-the-bahais/
  31. ^ "Iran's arrest of Baha'is condemned - CNN.com". CNN. 2008-05-16. Retrieved 2010-05-23.
  32. ^ http://www.law.emory.edu/current-students/student-organizations/epic/atc/about-the-conference.html
  33. ^ a b Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor (2009-02-25). "2008 Human Rights Report: Iran". United States State Department. Retrieved 2009-03-01.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link) CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  34. ^ a b Iran's Nobel Laureate Has Become a Target of the Regime. Azadeh MOAVENI. JANUARY 6, 2009
  35. ^ http://www.isfit.org/programme/programme/index/82
  36. ^ a b Britain is appeasing Iran, Nobel laureate Shirin Ebadi says. Martin Fletcher September 24, 2009
  37. ^ Iranian Nobel Peace Prize-Winner Ebadi Calls For New Elections 16 June 2009
  38. ^ "Iran detains Nobel laureate's sister". CNN. December 29, 2009. Retrieved December 29, 2009.
  39. ^ Shirin Ebadi statement
  40. ^ Iranian Nobel Winner Suing U.S. over Memoir : NPR
  41. ^ Ebadi Wins Round with U.S. over Memoirs : NPR
  42. ^ Williams College: Honorary Degree Citation 2004, last retrieved on 2008-05-05
  43. ^ A Different View, Issue 19, January 2008.
  44. ^ "University Honors: Shirin Ebadi". Marquette University. Retrieved 2010-01-10. [dead link]

Further reading

  • Kim, U.; Aasen, H. S.; Ebadi, S. (2003). Democracy, human rights, and Islam in modern Iran: Psychological, social and cultural perspectives. Bergen: Fagbokforlaget. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |lastauthoramp= ignored (|name-list-style= suggested) (help)
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Awards and achievements
Preceded by Nobel Peace Prize Laureate
2003 		Succeeded by


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