Despite blasting Iran’s human rights record on several accounts, Nobel Peace Prize winner Shirin Ebadi said she believes the solutions to those human rights violations will come from the Iranian people and not foreign military intervention.
About 700 students, professors and community members filled the Union Ballroom Friday morning to welcome and listen to Shirin Ebadi, an Iranian crusader of women and children’s rights who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2003. The talk, titled “Human Rights: The Struggle for Iran,” comprised the second-annual World Leaders Lecture Forum, which last year welcomed former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak.
“Democracy and human rights can only grow and flourish in a sound and peaceful environment,” Ebadi said through an interpreter.
Ebadi said a military attack or even a threat of a military attack would worsen the human rights situation in Iran tremendously.
She said there should be no militaries, but until that day, governments around the world should dedicate 10 percent of their current military spending to education. Ebadi said violence is propagated in children’s lives through things such as toy guns and violent video games. To promote peace, Ebadi urged governments around the world to restrict such toys and replace them with books and pens.
“I especially liked what she said about how foreign interventions or military endeavors are not necessarily the best option,” said Sawaiba Khan, a senior in history and English. “People within their own countries have the right to make changes and influence their own countries without needing a foreign military.”
Human rights is an international standard on how to live, and it has nothing to do with the West or East, Muslims or Christians, Ebadi said. She said many Middle Eastern governments, including Iran, use Islam as a pretext to enforce their own interpretation of Islam on their people and limit their human rights. For example, Ebadi said in a country like Saudi Arabia, women cannot drive or enjoy other rights, but other Islamic countries such as Indonesia or Pakistan have women becoming political leaders decades ago.
“I admired what she said about the interpretation of Islam, because the problem (in Muslim countries) is not Islam,” said Khadija Guet, a senior in French. “It’s a stereoytype, but the real problem is how certain leaders interpret Islam.”
Ebadi was especially critical of the Iranian government. She said Iran has joined the International Convention on the Rights of the Child, but said regretfully that laws within the country are incompatible with the International Convention.
Ebadi said children in Iran are equally liable as adults for crimes, so a 10-year-old girl would be tried the same way as a 40-year-old man before an Iranian court. Ebadi also mentioned significant problems related to the legal marriage of under-age girls. She said “legislations in Iran are basically 200 years behind in terms of what has been learned about children.”
Iranian leaders have misinterpreted Islamic law to argue that the value of a woman’s life is worth half that of a man, therefore two women need to testify before a judge to equate one male witness’ testimony, Ebadi said. Ebadi said a country cannot be democratically minded and deny half of its citizens basic rights.
As Ebadi left the ballroom to standing ovations and roaring applause, Nayereh Fallahi, a Persian instructor, said, “I admire Shirin Ebadi highly because she has been fighting for the rights children and women (in Iran) not just today, not just yesterday, but for as long as I’ve known of her.”