Iran Hardliners Downplay Shirin Ebadi Nobel Prize

by Ramin Mostaghim

State-run television treated the news as minor item. Many newspapers aligned with hardliners' factions did not carry the news or criticized it, observed Bahram Rouzbahani, expressing frustration over the 'warped' reporting by media on Ebadi's win.

"Between the lines, it was implied that the prize was granted to Shirin Ebadi as she was pro-homosexuality, abortion and pre-marriage sexual relationships," said Rouzbahani, a dissident in charge of a newsstand in Engelab Avenue near Tehran University.

A mixed reception awaits Ebadi, Iran's first woman judge when she comes back home to Iran Tuesday night. Many intellectuals, reformist politicians and a representative from the office of reformist President Mohammad Khatami are expected meet her at the Mehrabad airport.

Shirin Ebadi was born 56 years ago in the historic city of Hamadan west of Iran, but moved to Tehran when she was four. She has a masters degree from the law faculty of Tehran university and her husband, Javad Tavassoliyan, is an apolitical but well-reputed civil engineer.

Until the eve of the 1979 Islamic Revolution, she was practicing law as a judge in Tehran. But the revolution nullified the rights for women to be judges, forcing her into retirement. But instead of staying at home, she became a freelance lecturer at Tehran university and continued practicing law, defending the families of murdered intellectuals and dissidents.

The climax of her activities coincided with the student riots in 1999. At the time, she, along with a male co-worker, managed to document on video the confessions of an ex-vigilante, Amir Farshad Ebrahimi, who revealed the role of the regime officials including former president Hashemi Rafsanjani in ordering attacks on dissidents' gatherings.

In 2000, Ebadi was accused of distributing the videotaped confession and got a suspended jail sentence. She was banned from practicing law for five years.

Local media have quoted Ebadi as saying the Nobel prize "does not just belong to me, but it belongs to all the freedom-loving people who are working for democracy, freedom and human rights in Iran"

"As a lawyer, judge, lecturer, writer and activist, she has spoken out clearly and strongly in her country, Iran, and far beyond its borders," according to the citation from the Nobel Committee released Friday. "She has stood up as a sound professional, a courageous person, and has never heeded the threats to her own safety."

"The prize shows that the international community is concentrating on the Iranian reform movement, especially the European Union has been taking the side of Iranian reform and women's emancipation," remarked Elaheh Kolaee, a member of the Islamic Participation Party and parliament.

Some pro-Khatami reformists regard Ebadi as a new international figure to promote their cause and expect her to be 'grateful' to the Islamic Revolution for uplifting women's status.

But this made dissident analyst Behrouz Ahmadi furious. "If Shirin Ebadi should be thankful for the Islamic Revolution and the post-revolutionary government, then Ayatollah (Ruhollah) Khomeini and other religious leaders should also express their gratitude for being put in jail or arrested or banished by former monarchic regime," he said.

"Shirin Ebadi was arrested several times and after documenting the Islamic regime's conspiracy to crack down dissident groups by vigilantes on a tape, she was in solitary confinement for 22 days," argued Dr Faribouz Reisdana, a lecturer. "She has nothing to do with President Khatami and his associates. She is adamantly defending the rights of children, women and political prisoners."

Some Iranians noted that in truth, even the reformists, who are now issuing Ebadi congratulatory praises, cannot claim much victory in her win.

"President Khatami has a brazen face because he congratulates Mrs Shirin Ebadi for winning the Nobel peace prize. But let's remind him that she was arrested, sentenced to a suspended prison sentence, solitary confinement, and banned from the bar during Khatami's presidency," said one critic, declining to be named.

The Nobel Committee delivered a message not only about Iran and women's rights in selecting Ebadi, but on Islam and democracy.

"Ebadi is a conscious Muslim. She sees no conflict between Islam and fundamental human rights," her citation said. "It is important to her that the dialogue between the different cultures and religions of the world should take as its point of departure their shared values."

But even this message may not be easily received, some here say, given the entrenched conservative attitudes among many Islamic jurists.

"The $103 million prize for Mrs Shirin Ebadi should be divided into halves thanks to the Islamic tradition based on the Holy Koran," satirist Mohammad Lombak Khorasani, 62, said, giggling as he mocked how the conservative clerics might react to the Nobel win.

According to Islamic precepts, daughters inherit half their brothers' share. "When Shirin Ebadi stresses the compatibility of Islam and democracy, she has a long way to go in convincing Islamic jurists that men and women enjoy equal rights," he said. "That is not an easy task."

In the end however, for many Iranians just having a compatriot win as prestigious an award as the Nobel is enough of a feat by itself.

"I do not know what exactly is the impact of the prize in domestic politics and power struggle. But one thing is for sure: it is an honor for Iranians to have such a woman as their fellow countrywoman," Parvin Saremi, the manager in charge of 'Khandani' magazine said, tears in his eyes.