WUNRN
Women News Network
Correspondent ELAHE AMANI with
Dr. Shirin Ebadi and other lawyers and
activists working with DHRC – Defenders of Human Rights Center Iran welcome the
decision to set up a Campaign in defense of the Center and express their
gratitude to members of the women’s movement who have provided much support in
this difficult time.
WNN
Iran Report - 30 years ago, Dr. Shirin Ebadi, the first female judge in Iranian
history, was removed from her post when religious authorities in
During a time marked by political and
religious upheaval, Shirin Ebadi found her path and continued her journey by
becoming a human rights advocate and attorney serving the public as she helped
those who looked to her to provide counsel on the interpretation of rights
under Iranian law.
In 2003, Dr. Ebadi received the Nobel Peace
Prize, “for her efforts for democracy and human rights” as she “focused on the
struggle for the rights of women and children.” Almost six years later, in Feb
2009, the struggle to defend human rights in
“The issues facing us today are
increasingly complex. A certain number of states have ignored the rules of
international law to impose relations dominated by force. Domestically,
repression is increasingly often gaining the upper hand over the respect of
rights and freedoms,” said Ebadi to human rights defenders, FIDH –
International Federation of Human Rights.
Over the past years, Ebadi has been the
target of threats, arrests and assassination attempts, but she is not slowing
down. She keeps moving forward. Today she continues, in spite of recent
reversals, to represent victims of human rights injustice and discrimination in
“I realize that putting so much store in
political dialogue seems overly optimistic, given the gulf that exists between
the West’s expectations of
Now at the age of 61, her life is in more
danger than ever. A sentence for “death” has recently been written by vandals
on the walls outside her home and office in
Iranian Nobel Peace Prize 2003 winner
Shirin Ebadi (center) attends the Tolerance Prize award ceremony before she
receives her award beside Friedemann Greiner (left) President of the
Evangelische Akademie Tutzing, and Udo Steinbach, President of the
Orient-Institut Hamburg, at Evangelische Akademie on Oct 1, 2008 in Tutzing,
Germany. Photo image: Johannes Simon/Getty Images Europe
Recently, only a few weeks following an
invitation to give a series of public lectures for the
“On the brink of the 10th anniversary of
the UN Declaration of Human Rights Defenders and the 60th anniversary year of
the International Declaration of Human Rights, it is ironic that a 2003 Nobel
Peace Prize laureate has been censured in
As Ebadi’s censured visit came to a close,
on Sunday Dec 21, 2008, plain-clothes and uniformed police and security
officials raided the offices of the DHRC - Defenders of Human Rights
Center. DHRC staff speculates that the closure was in part pushed through on
the heels of a Oct 2008 negative report on
Now the subsequent complete closure of the
DHRC building in
“The closure of DHRC is not just an attack
on Shirin Ebadi and her Iranian colleagues, but on the entire international
human rights community of which she is an influential and important
member,” said Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch.
As global human rights are also put to the
test in the
“Thirty years on, some of the worst abuses
of the Shah’s time – torture, executions and the suppression of legitimate
dissent – are still being replicated in Iran,” said Malcolm Smart, Director of
Amnesty International’s Middle East and North Africa Program, “despite the
efforts of the country’s growing and valiant community of human rights
defenders.”
“It is high time that Iranian authorities
lived up to their obligations under international human rights law,” added
Smart.
The sign for Ebadi’s law office that reads,
“Shirin Ebadi, Legal Advisor and Lawyer,” was torn from its place recently by
vandals who wrote threats on the outside façade of Ebadi’s home and office
building. After Ebadi called for assistance, police did nothing as they watched
the mob spray paint epithets. Photo image: Change4Equality
On the 30th anniversary of the Iranian
revolution, a new and innovative opportunity to address the status of democracy
in
As new government policies in the post
revolution “Spring of Freedom” responded to widespread opposition to the idea
of mandatory Islamic dress for women, including requirements to wear the Hijab,
relaxation of the codes were not encouraged as
“As long as I am alive, I will do my duty
and activities,” said Ebadi to the press recently.
Exposing Ebadi to higher risks and dangers,
her advocacy work on issues related to human rights violations in
When she received the Nobel Peace
prize in 2003, she used the 1.4 million prize money to found and finance the
opening of a center for legal rights counsel in
Recently, in Feb 2008, Ebadi and her family
suffered under the weight of her human rights convictions as the
government sponsored, IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency, published a series
of articles falsely claiming that she and her daughter, a student at Canada’s
McGill University, had converted from Islam to a religion currently considered
by the Iranian government to be part of a heretical and unrecognized minority -
the Baha’i religion.
Leaving the Iranian
Islamic State religion is a serious crime in
The drive to formally include apostasy laws
and to enact “justice” under the penal code has caused “deep concern” at the
United Nations. On the Oct 30, 2008 UN General Assembly session, the Assembly
expressed concern about Iran’s “increasing discrimination and other human
rights violations against persons belonging to religious, ethnic, linguistic or
other minorities.” Groups recognized as suffering under the report include
Arabs, Azeris, Baluchis, Kurds, Christians, Jews, Sufis and Sunni Muslims, as
well as Baha’is and their defenders.
“Particular attacks on Baha’is and their
faith in State-sponsored media, increasing evidence of efforts by the State to
identify and monitor Baha’is, preventing members of the Baha’i faith from
attending university and from sustaining themselves economically,” along with
Baha’i arrests, were also highlighted in the General Assembly report.
Under government scrutiny and the
implication in pending Iranian law on the charges of “apostasy,” Shirin Ebadi
and her daughter are clearly facing personal danger with a looming and
dangerously real sentence of death.
She and her daughter promptly denounced the
false accusation in public when Ebadi said, “Threats against my life and
security and those of my family, which began some time ago, have
intensified.” An anonymous, handwritten threat that Ebadi has received
during this time says, “Shirin Ebadi, your death is near.”
Oct 2008 threats and harassment against Ms.
Ebadi also escalated while she was in
“This (Tolerance Prize) award was bestowed on her because of her
remarks that are contrary to the interests of the Iranian nation,” stated the IRNA.
Since the revolution, 30 yrs ago, the
population of
The leadership, creativity and utilization
of communication technology by the young women of
Even as a majority of women receive higher
education in
Slightly over half of all teachers in Iran
today are women, but the proportion of female university teaching staff is only
20%, less than that of Algeria (41%), Tunisia (40%), Turkey (38%), and Bahrain
(36%). To top this off, less than 4% of employed women are found in senior,
executive or managerial positions.
The Campaign Against Stoning and All Forms
of Violence against Women, The White Scarves Campaign – fighting against gender
segregation in Iran stadiums and Kanoon Zanan are all part of a 30
year transcript of a nation where women will no longer take the back seat
and accept the inferior position in society. Iranian women writers,
novelists, journalists, publishers and movie directors are defining and
redefining gender roles and gender relations on a daily basis.
In a 21st century re-interpretation of 14th
century Sharia law the Iranian people, and Iranian women in particular, are
claiming moral victory and the beginning of real legitimacy.
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