Fighting for Iran’s Humanity

“I am an Iranian. I have been born in Iran. I was raised in Iran. I work in Iran, and I will die in Iran” — that’s the word from Shirin Ebadi, a Nobel laureate whose love of her homeland also drives her campaign to promote human rights there..

“I am an Iranian. I have been born in Iran. I was raised in Iran. I work in Iran, and I will die in Iran” — that’s the word from Shirin Ebadi, a Nobel laureate who will also undoubtedly continue her persistent campaign to promote human rights in her beloved but imperfect homeland.

Ebadi spoke at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in early February just before Iran celebrated the 30th anniversary of its Islamic Revolution — and during those three decades, Ebadi has personally fought for democracy and human rights, especially legal rights for women, children and refugees. It’s been a long battle with consequences, for better or worse.

Most recently at the start of 2009, Ebadi’s home-office in Tehran was vandalized by scores of young men chanting “Death to the pen-pushing mercenary.” It was the latest in a string of run-ins with hardliners for Ebadi, whose Center for the Defense of Human Rights was shut down by Iranian authorities in December, shortly after the United Nations passed a nonbinding resolution calling on Iran to improve its human rights record.

But the 61-year-old human rights lawyer wasn’t deterred, and she promptly returned to Iran after her U.S. speaking tour, continuing the center’s activities even though it was closed down.

Yet Ebadi doesn’t harbor any visible anger toward President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. To the contrary, she is a moderate who criticizes both Western and Islamic powers and urges respectful dialogue between each — insisting that it take place at both the political and civil levels of society.

“I don’t think that there are differences that cannot be resolved,” Ebadi told the Carnegie audience, speaking through a translator, of U.S.-Iranian relations “I think what exists is just a misunderstanding. In order to resolve the problems, I have always talked about dialogue with no preconditions,” she added, noting her optimism on the issue with the election of President Barack Obama, who appears open to engaging Tehran.

But while the “presidents and parliaments” of each country must talk to each other, Ebadi stressed that cooperation must also take place among the people.

To that end, she pointed out that there are 2 million Iranians living in the United States. “If each Iranian who lives in the United States has at least five members of his or her family in Iran, just imagine how many people would like to have a good relationship between the two countries,” she said.

And regardless of Ahmadinejad’s hostile rhetoric or what comes of Obama’s overtures to Iran, this people-to-people engagement can and must continue. Admitting that both the Iranian and U.S. governments tend to be suspicious of human rights activists, Ebadi said one way to press ahead with dialogue is to directly link up members of the same professions, encouraging teachers to interact with teachers, media with media, etc.

On that note, Ebadi faulted the U.S. government for not issuing enough student visas to foster civil society exchanges. But the brunt of her criticism was reserved for her homeland, where she’s been unwavering in her push for political, gender, religious and ethnic equality — a long-standing commitment that won her the Nobel Peace Prize in 2003, becoming the first Iranian to do so.

Although she acknowledged that Iran’s government came to power legitimately with a majority of the population supporting the 1979 revolution, Ebadi warned that legitimacy is bestowed from both the ballot box and respect for universal human rights.

She also emphasized that human rights is indeed universal, and cannot be defined by one particular religion, country or group. “If we accept that the Muslims can write an Islamic human rights declaration, then we have to accept that other religions do the same thing,” Ebadi said. “Human rights is an international concept. And it’s above the national laws of any country, even the constitution of any country.”

Yet Iran has been far from universal in applying human rights to its own people, Ebadi charged, complaining that discriminatory laws and practices divide the nation and oppress the weak.

In particular, the inequality is most stark for women, who make up half the country. Ironically, women occupy many upper echelons of Iranian society, working as doctors, professors and engineers, and making up about 65 percent of the country’s university students. Yet legally, their worth is half that of men — literally.

“Testification of two women in court equals testification of one man. A man can marry four wives…. If me and my brother go out to the street and we are attacked by a terrorist, for example, and we both lose limbs, the law predicts payment of compensation to my brother twice as much as it does to me,” explained Ebadi, who prior to the revolution, served as a judge during the Shah’s reign.

“After the revolution, I was told that I could not continue to be a judge because I was a woman. And I was demoted. I became the secretary or the clerk of the court that I used to be the judge in. I could not tolerate that situation,” Ebadi recalled.

“What we’re working on is to make the government, regardless of the name of the government, to observe human rights,” she added, noting that although the two regimes before and after the revolution are certainly different, neither earn high marks for human rights. “Things were different then — bad and different. Now they are bad and different,” Ebadi quipped. “In any way, bad is bad.”

Through it all though, Ebadi has worked to bolster the legal status of children and women, the latter of which played a key role in the May 1997 election of reformist President Mohammad Khatami. Since then, Ahmadinejad has regressed on many of those reforms, though progress is still tangible.

Today, for instance, Ebadi pointed out that technology is helping a younger generation of activists stay ahead of government censors. In fact, earlier this week on Feb. 24, it was reported that a group of some 70 Iranian students were arrested following a rare show of protest against government policies.

But a bigger worry for the country’s burgeoning youth is the economy and simply getting a job. To that end, Ebadi said that “70 percent of the workers will fall under the poverty line,” blaming enormous military budgets that dwarf education and health care — a problem in the United States.

But at the same time, Ebadi warned that human rights should not take a backseat to economic and political priorities — a subject that recently came up during Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s trip to China. Ebadi also chided both the United States and Iran for being consumed by the nuclear debate to the exclusion of all other issues, urging the two governments to refocus their discussions on human rights.

Why? Because human rights and politics are intimately intertwined, Ebadi said. “I believe that when I speak about a dialogue and negotiations between the civil societies of each country, that brings awareness to the people. And when people are aware of the issues, that will impact the way they vote. If we bring hatred to the world and just talk about hatred all the time, that will impact our votes. However, if we bring friendship and talk about commonalities between the two societies, then that will impact the vote as well.”

But Ebadi stressed that she doesn’t believe in any sort of forced regime change — quite the opposite. “I have said numerous times that I not only do not accept an attack on Iran — a military attack on Iran — I don’t even accept the threat of a military attack on Iran. And also all economic sanctions on Iran, because any economic sanction will deteriorate the situation of people, but does not hurt the government. And a threat of a military attack will result in the government becoming stronger and use national security as a result of oppressing people,” Ebadi said, arguing that any change must come from within. “The people demand respect for democracy and human rights in Iran and this demand can only take place in a peaceful situation.”

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