WUNRN
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Payvand's Iran News |
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11/11/08 |
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Iranian-American Student Esha Momeni
Bailed Out of Iran Jail + Shirin Ebadi Interview |
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Interview
with Shirin Ebadi Source:
Dr. Shirin Ebadi: "The Entire Process of Esha Momeni's Arrest Has Been
Illegal" Change for Equality
(November 8, 2008) - Pressure on women's rights activists has intensified.
Esha Momeni was arrested on October 15th while driving on the Modarres
Highway and was transferred to Evin Prison. To date, no clear and specific
explanation has been provided. On October 19th, security officers carrying
investigation and arrest warrants entered the home of Parastoo Allahyai and
searched her home. On October 26th, Susan Tahmassebi was not allowed to leave
the country and her passport was confiscated. Last week, the final decisions
on charges against Zeynab Payghambarzadeh and Rezvan Moghaddam, two activists
of the One Million Signatures Campaign, were announced. Zohreh Assadpour, one
of the Campaign volunteers in Rasht, was rejected from entering Azad
University… And these kinds of events continue… It is interesting to note
that contrary to the inappropriate actions of the security agents, the
women's rights activists, volunteers, and their families are urged to remain
silent and to refrain from publicizing the news. We conducted an interview
with Dr. Shirin Ebadi, Nobel Peace Prize laureate and a member of the Human
Rights Defenders Foundation. Q:
In recent days we have seen how repression of women's rights activists has
been stepped up, and especially that the pressure is rising on the One
Million Signatures Campaign; this new wave of attacks on women's rights
activists that began with Esha Momeni's arrest continues. Many human rights
organizations, including Amnesty International, published statements
concerning this issue. What is your analysis of the situation? And in
general, does talking about people who are arrested make things worse for
them? Dr.
Ebadi: I have always said that in our interaction with any government, we are
limited only through the laws. If things are carried out lawfully, why
shouldn't we talk about them? If [the officials] did not follow the law and
they have done things illegally, and they are worried about being exposed,
the question is why has the law been ignored. I do not accept, under any
circumstance, that when a person gets arrested, we should not talk about the
manner of the arrest and the procedure that has followed the arrest because
we wrongly assume that we are worsening the prisoner's situation. When
dealing with prison and court officials, we are limited only by the law. The
law does not forbid a family or an attorney from talking about the arrestee.
So if sensitivity exists concerning talking and interviewing about an arrest,
we must say this sensitivity is misplaced, and if it is objected that our
interview can be misused by the enemy, then I have to repeat that we are
limited only by the law. If the law is respected and followed, the enemy can
not do anything. If the government breaks the law, the question we should put
to them is, "why did you carry out an illegal act?". My question
is: how come when they arrest a thief and burglar every single newspaper
covers the details of this arrest and the court procedure, and they are proud
of that? They are right perhaps to be proud, they have arrested a criminal
and with her/his arrest society is safer. But what is the message when a
person is arrested and the officials advise the media not to address the
issue? Those who give such advice must answer this question. Q:
Do you believe interviewing women's rights activists, in their homes and with
their permission, and recording some of those interviews with a video camera,
is a crime? Dr.
Ebadi: Basically the first step is that this arrest [Esha's arrest] was an
illegal arrest and the obtainment of the videotapes and other materials was
against the criminal investigation regulations, therefore using these tapes
as evidence of crime does not have any legal basis. As
for Esha Momeni's case, I have to tell you that she is one of the clients of
our firm, the Center for the Defenders of Human Rights, and Mr. Mohammad Ali Dadkhah
is her instructed attorney. He has constantly made requests to the officials
that he be allowed to visit his client, but he has been denied. They haven't
even let him look at her case files. All of these procedures are illegal. The
minute a person is in custody s/he should be allowed to have contact with
her/his attorney. Q:
What is worrying here is that the authorities seem to want to radicalize the
women's rights movement. And the tolerance that women's rights activists have
shown towards the state did not lead to a reciprocal tolerance towards the
women's rights activists, and confrontations against them have become more
violent. What do you think women's rights activists should do about these
confrontations? Dr.
Ebadi: As you know very well, the One Million Signatures Campaign is the most
peaceful way of criticizing the discriminatory laws against women. No-one can
use these laws to control a society in which the number of educated women is
greater than that of men. It is natural that society demands changes to these
discriminatory laws and opposes them. Fortunately the women's rights
activists in this campaign have based their efforts on rationality and they
always use peaceful methods to communicate with the authorities. But the
Islamic Revolutionary Courts have little tolerance and as we see the women's
rights activists are being accused of treason against their country and
acting against national security. I have always given this example: the
United States won't attack Iran because a woman does not want her husband to
take a second wife, or because a woman is asking to have the same legal
rights as her brothers. What kind of logic is behind their arguments? It is
unfortunate that women's rightful demands for change for equality are not
tolerated by the courts and other judicial sources. I hope the authorities
come to realize that with more tolerance matters will improve. Q:
Sussan Tahmasebi was banned from leaving the country and her passport has
been taken away from her. Her home has also been searched and many of her
personal files taken away. She has been interrogated twice since then. The
house of Parastou Allah-Yari, another women's rights activist, was also
searched in this manner. These arrests, interrogations and prohibitions from
leaving the country happen while they ask the media not to publish any news
about these cases. They do many illegal and controversial things and yet they
expect the atmosphere to remain quiet and calm. What is your view of this
contradiction? Dr.
Ebadi: We do not have "prohibition from leaving or entering the
country" as a punishment in Iranian law. When they call a person for
interrogation and there is a case against her/him, she can post bail in the
form of money, or another person can sign to release the accused. And as long
as the person is back in time for her/his court date, he or she is free even
to leave the country. In the case where she does not return, the bail will go
to the government. So legally no-one can be banned from leaving the county as
a punishment, unless they add this in the court. When an official engages in
an illegal act, it is inevitable that this should be reflected in society. Those
who are unhappy with the current law, naturally object to it, and objections
and criticism do not happen inside one's home, they happen in seminars and
talks and in the media. So if officials don't want something to be said, they
should address the issue in a legal manner. What has happened to Ms.
Tahmasebi does not have any legal basis. Q:
This problem, the forbidding of women's rights activists and of other civil,
social and political activists from leaving the country, has arisen time and
time again. What do you see as the reason behind this? Dr.
Ebadi: Unfortunately censorship has existed in Iran even before the Islamic
Revolution, under the Shah's regime. Permission is required from the Ministry
of Islamic Guidance for every book that is published. And we know that some
books never receive such permission. Moreover, this censorship is so
widespread with respect to the legal system that it is illegal to criticise
Iran's constitution in magazines and newspapers. This is really interesting
that one cannot talk about one's country's constitution. In reality,
unfortunately the limits are increasing every day. One of the examples of the
increase in censorship is the filtering of women's rights websites. But since
women who want equality are persistent, they have begun to pursue their
demands even in the context of small family gatherings. These family
gatherings are not safe from the illegal methods used by officials. For
example, Ms. Khadijeh Moghadam and her husband were illegally arrested
because of a gathering in their home. On the other hand, Iranian women's
rights activists participate in international conferences outside Iran and
they voice their struggles towards equality. In these international human
rights conferences, of course they don't say anything different from what
they say in Iran. But since the media inside Iran cannot reflect their
demands and activities, they get better coverage outside Iran and people get
to know about them and their activities. So banning equal rights activists
from leaving Iran is one form of censorship, so the activists cannot reflect
and share their views. The same thing happened with my trip to Malaysia. I
was invited a year ago to give a talk in an international seminar in an
academic setting. I accepted the invitation and I had scheduled my trip. Just
before I left for the seminar I received a letter that informed me that I cannot
give a talk, but that I can go and participate as an audience member. They
had canceled my talk and the letter from the foreign ministry of Malaysia to
the organizers was attached to this. In this letter it was said that
"Iran's government sees Ms. Ebadi as an opposition figure; she
criticizes Iran in a westernized manner, and her speech may therefore damage
the relationship between Iran and Malaysia. We strongly advise you to cancel
her talk." This letter was from the Malaysian Foreign Ministry and I
received it from the organizers of the seminar. Of course many human rights
NGOs in Malaysia and South-East Asia protested against this decision and some
withdrew from the conference. As a result the Foreign Ministry of Malaysia
changed their position and denied ever writing this letter. Of course I did
not think it right to go there anyway given the circumstances. All this shows
that a great deal of censorship takes place. And the bottom line is that
censorship limits freedom of speech. ... Payvand
News - 11/11/08 ...
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