Iran - land of contradiction
by Maggie Paterson
Nobel prize-winner Shirin Ebadi, lawyer, writer and activist, is a champion of human rights in Iran, particularly for women and children. A devout Muslim, she challenges an interpretation of Islam which excludes basic human rights. She has lived through three eras in Iran - the western-backed Shah, the Ayotollah's Islamic Republic and today's conservative Mahmud Ahmadi-Nejad. Through it all her passionate love for her country and hope for a better future remains undimmed. Her story reveals a nation full of contradiction, conflict and promise.
Amnesty Magazine: What is your earliest memory of an insight into human rights and wrongs?
Shirin Ebadi: As a child, I always had a feeling which I could not name but I later realised was about seeking justice. Through most of my childhood, I never noticed that our household was special. My parents treated my brother exactly the same as us girls. I assumed all families were the same. Not so: in most Iranian households, male children were spoiled and cosseted, the centre of the family. As they grew older, the boy's privileges expanded, while the girl's contracted. In our house, my parents gave us equal attention, affection and discipline. Only when I was much older did I realise how the gender equality I learned at home gave me a real sense of myself and my place in the world. I never suffered from the low self-esteem I saw in women from traditional homes. My father championed my independence from the play yard to my decision to become a judge. This gave me a confidence which I now regard as my most valued inheritance.
AM: What first made you start your fight for human rights?
SE: When I first read the draft of the Islamic penal code, after the revolution which I and others had welcomed, I was convinced I was hallucinating. The statutes were grim: a woman's life was valued at half that of a man. Anyone who opposed the code was deemed to be against Islam. The laws turned the clock back fourteen hundred years. I felt enormous rage - and in an hour my head was throbbing excruciatingly, the first of my many migraines. I had been removed as a judge for being a woman, now I knew I had to turn all my efforts to being a lawyer for human rights, for women and children in particular.
AM: How did you feel when you saw your name on an official death list?
SE: In 2000, nearly a decade after I began my legal practice, I faced the ten most harrowing days of my career. The government had recently admitted complicity in the killing of dozens of intellectuals in the 1990s. The presiding judge gave the victims' lawyers ten days to read the entire dossier - it was our only chance to see the investigation findings and build our case. The files were stacked as high as our heads, full of harrowing details of interrogations of death squad members. In one transcript, a sentence stared at me from the page. I thought I had misread. It said: 'The next person to be killed is Shirin Ebadi.' How have I made such enemies? This was to haunt me for years to come.
AM: What did the Nobel Prize mean to you personally and for your work?
SE: I never thought of the prize as being for me, the individual. When we arrived back in Tehran, I saw the crowd stretching as far as I could see, hundreds of thousands, and most of them women, and most of them had walked to the airport as the roads were jammed. All flights were cancelled because of the crush. A group of students sang the folk song Yar-e Dabestani - 'Whose hands but mine and yours can pull back the curtains?' As we drove through the crowds I watched the faces, so alive! I saw a woman with a child and a home-made placard which said 'This is Iran'. The prize meant so much to so many people.
AM: Is Islam compatible with democracy and human rights?
SE: There is nothing in Islam which contradicts human rights. Our government claims that the laws which restrict the human rights of women and children are based on Islam. Like any religion, Islam can have many interpretations. In Saudi Arabia, women are not even allowed to drive. But in Bangladesh or Pakistan they can be cabinet ministers. Undemocratic countries justify their tyranny in the name of Islam. Religion should be separate from politics and government. We need a new definition of democracy and society. A majority freely elected by the people is not entitled to rule in any way it likes, it cannot then have the right to repress women, or to restrict the freedom of expression of its people. The framework of democracy must be human rights laws.
AM: Have you ever wanted to turn your back on Iran?
SE: I am an Iranian. If someone has a mother who is very old or ill, do they leave her in the street to die? I cannot forsake her. I must do everything I can to nurse her to health. I feel my country is ailing. I cannot hate Iran. I might have something against my government but that is different. I must live in Iran even though it is not easy. I must work for Iran.
Anmesty Magazine, July/August 2006
