Winner of peace prize attacks US at award ceremony

[N.O.R.F]

By Peter Popham

11 December 2003

 

 

Shirin Ebadi, the first Muslim woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize, used the ceremony in Oslo yesterday to send a tough anti-war message to President George Bush's government in Washington.

 

The 56-year-old Iranian lawyer and human rights campaigner, her country's first female judge before being stripped of the job in 1979 following the Islamic revolution, told the audience that it was worrying when human rights were violated by the Western democracies that had first introduced the principles.

 

Without citing the United States by name, she singled out the Iraq war and the treatment of "illegal combatants" in the prison camp at Guantanamo Bay for condemnation.

 

"In the past two years, some states have violated the universal principles and laws of human rights by using the events of September 11 and the war on international terrorism as a pretext," she said in her acceptance speech.

 

"Regulations restricting human rights and basic freedoms ... have been justified and given legitimacy under the cloak of the war on terrorism."

 

She also highlighted the inconsistent way that Western countries treat United Nations Security Council resolutions. "Why are certain decisions and resolutions of the Security Council binding while other resolutions of the council are not?" she said. "Why in the course of the past 35 years have the tens of UN resolutions concerning the occupation of Palestinian territories by the state of Israel not been rapidly applied?"

 

She pointed out that Iraq was subject to "an attack, a military assault, economic sanctions and finally military occupation", first with Security Council support and subsequently in spite of the council's opposition.

 

Ms Ebadi's choice for the prize has polarised opinion in Iran, where hardline Islamists have condemned it as a ploy by the US and Israel.

[N.O.R.F]

Shirin Ebadi: Islam does not justify inequality

From the acceptance speech of the 2003 Nobel Peace Prize winner, in Oslo

11 December 2003

 

 

Women constitute half of the population of every country. To disregard women and bar them from active participation in political, social, economic and cultural life would, in fact, be tantamount to depriving the entire population of every society of half its capacity. The patriarchal structure and discrimination against women, particularly in the Islamic countries, cannot continue forever.

 

Some Muslims, under the pretext that democracy and human rights are not compatible with Islamic teachings and the traditional structure of Islamic societies, have justified despotic governments and continue to do so. The people of Iran, particularly in recent years, have shown that they deem participation in public affairs to be their right, and want to be masters of their own destiny. In fact, it is not so easy to rule over a people who are aware of their rights using traditional patriarchal and paternalistic methods.

 

The discriminatory plight of women in Islamic states has its roots in the patriarchal and male-dominated culture prevailing in these societies, not in Islam. The culture does not tolerate freedom and democracy, just as it does not believe in the equal rights of men and women and the liberation of women from male domination.

 

The decision by the Nobel Peace committee to award the 2003 prize to me, as the first Iranian and the first woman from an Islamic country, inspires me and millions of Iranians and nationals of Islamic states with the hope that our efforts, endeavours and struggles toward the realisation of human rights and the establishment of democracy enjoy the support, backing and solidarity of international civil society. The prize belongs to the people of Iran. It belongs to the people of Islamic states and the people of the South.