TEHRAN, 16 October 2003 — Iranian Nobel Peace Prize winner Shirin Ebadi called yester for the immediate release of jailed dissidents in the Islamic republic and insisted that human rights were not incompatible with Islam.
The human rights lawyer’s Nobel win has ignited fierce debate in Iran with hard-liners labeling her a political stooge of the West while pro-reform activists hail her as a symbol of the fight for greater democracy and freedom in Iran.
Ebadi shrugged off Iranian government warnings and criticism from hard-liners, vowing her struggle for democracy and human rights would continue. “I will not change the way in which I work. The awarding of the prize showed that this method is a good one,” said the 56-year-old jurist and first Muslim woman to win the prize. “I wish for the release of all political prisoners and jailed journalists, as soon as possible,” Ebadi told a news conference the day after returning to Iran to an emotional reception from hundreds of supporters.
Dozens of pro-reform activists have been jailed and Iran’s hard-line judiciary has shut down scores of liberal newspapers in the past four years. Iran’s judiciary, the main target of Ebadi’s human rights campaigning, has poured scorn on her win by saying the prize “does not have much credibility”, reports said.
“I think she won the prize for politically motivated reasons,” Mohammad Javad Larijani, a deputy head of the judiciary, was quoted as saying by several Iranian newspapers. He asserted that the “Nobel Peace Prize does not have much credibility among intellectuals,” but did concede that he was “very happy that she (Ebadi) won a good deal of money.” However, the crowd of 3,000 people who turned out to welcome Ebadi home at Tehran’s main airport on Tuesday chanted, “Free political prisoners.”
Iranian officials promised the European Union last week to provide information on some 30 political prisoners held in jail. The EU on Monday accused Iran of practicing torture, suppressing freedom of expression and discriminating against women. Ebadi spent almost three weeks in jail herself and was banned from practicing law for five years in 2000.
Many ordinary Iranians hope Ebadi’s Nobel award could reinvigorate Iran’s reformist movement, which has struggled under President Mohammad Khatami to make much headway in the face of stiff resistance to change from powerful hard-liners.
But Ebadi dismissed speculation that her newfound fame would see her launch into the political arena. “If entering politics means gaining power, God save me from the day I become tempted by power,” she said.
A longtime campaigner for women’s and children’s rights, Ebadi insisted that Islam was a religion of peace and equality and could not be blamed for human rights abuses.“If women in Islamic countries are oppressed it is because of their male-dominated cultures, not because of Islam,” she said.
Khatami welcomed Ebadi’s award with muted enthusiasm on Tuesday. He said that while he was pleased an Iranian had won, the peace prize was not as important as the Nobel prizes for literature and science.
But Khatami’s brother, Reza Khatami, yesterday contradicted him by hailing the Nobel Prize win of Ebadi. “The Nobel Peace Prize is one of the most honorary and most influential prizes, and we are grateful to the Nobel committee for awarding this prize to an Iranian citizen,” Reza Khatami told Parliament.
