SHIRIN EBADI OPPOSES OCCUPATION OF OTHER NATIONS
TEHRAN, 2 Dec. (IPS) Iran’s Nobel Peace laureate for 2003, Mrs. Shirin Ebadi on Tuesday rejected military occupation of other countries, saying she hoped peace would be restored in Iraq, Palestine and Afghanistan, an indirect reference to the occupation of these nations by the United States and Israel.
An outspoken human rights activist and one of Iran’s most respected lawyer,
Mrs Ebadi was selected on 10 October as the winner of the prestigious Nobel
Peace Price for 2003.
"Military occupation of a country contradicts all charters of the United Nations", she told reporters at a news conference at Iranian News Agency (IRNA) head office here Tuesday.
"I believe that the fate any nation must be left to its own people to decide", she said, adding, "The military occupation of a country under the pretext of establishing democracy, and human rights is not right", she said, reported by IRNA.
The outspoken Iranian lawyer who is also a human rights campaigner added, "I wished (former Iraqi president) Saddam Hoseyn had been toppled by the people of that country and not the occupying forces", the official IRNA said.
Taking an implicit swipe at the US-led occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan by the US-led coalition, Ebadi said, "Freedom and democracy is cannot be presented to anybody on a plate. Neither can it be inducted into a country with the force of bullets, tanks and guns, since these are among issues which are achieved through constant struggles of the people".
Mrs. Ebadi had been congratulated by most world’s leaders and personalities, including Presidents of the United States, France, Germany and Britain as well as Pope John Paul II, another nominee of the award.
"As a lawyer, judge, lecturer, writer and activist, she has spoken out clearly and strongly in her country, Iran, far beyond its borders," the Nobel awards committee said in its citation about Mrs. Ebadi.
Turning to domestic issues, she demanded Iranian women be granted the same rights as men, and that religious minorities be given the same blood money as Muslims.
Ebadi also said she believed Iranian women can run for presidency like their male peers.
According to the Nobel Peace laureate, who is planned to receive her award in Oslo, Norway on 10 December, "human rights have improved very much in Iran, compared with 20 years ago".
"We have moved on the right track regarding human rights, but this is not enough", she said.
Ebadi refused to draw a line between human rights in Iran with those in the neighbouring countries, stating, "We must not be drawn to not heed human rights only because the humans rights situation in other countries is not favourable", IRNA quoted her as having stated.
Iranian women, she said, must be given the same blood money as men. "Women constitute 60 percent of the university students (in Iran). This indicates the education status of women in the Iranian society and the educated women see no difference between themselves and men (in this regard).
"Fortunately, some of the senior clerics have announced that blood money for men and women can be equal and the Iranian women await the day when this inequality will be removed from the law".
Iranian women receive half the blood money as men, as do the religious minorities who have seen a parliament effort to make it equal quashed once by the supervisory Guardians Council.
Ebadi also congratulated Iranian women for driving home their demand for improved child custody rights in the `patriarchal` Iranian society.
The arbitrative Expediency Council on Saturday agreed to grant divorced Iranian mothers the right to the custody of their children up to the age of seven.
"This reform of the law is the result of 20 years of resistance of the
Iranian women. I congratulate Iranians, especially women, on this victory,"
he told reporters at a news conference, held at IRNA
building here.
The Expediency Council sided with the parliament after the supervisory Guardians Council twice quashed the bill on the ground that it went against the Islamic Shari’a law.
Divorced mothers have already the custody right to their daughters up to the age of seven and the new law incorporates the same right to their sons.
One of the very first women under the former Iranian Monarchy to become
judge, Mrs. Ebadi was denied her job after the victory of the Islamic Revolution
of 1979 and was jailed on occasions on charges of slandering government
officials and defending prominent Iranian intellectuals and political dissidents
and deprived of professional activities for some time. ENDS EBADI PRESS CON
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