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Words of advice from peace
laureate
By Ramin Mostaghim
TEHRAN - Nobel Peace laureate Shirin Ebadi says
that Iranian President Mohammad Khatami has "missed
opportunities" during his tenure. Speaking to Inter
Press Service, the 56-year-old Iranian human rights
activist and lawyer indicated her disappointment with
his presidency, even as her supporters ride the
jubilation that greeted her award.
Ebadi, who on
October 10 was announced as the recipient of the 2003
Nobel Peace Prize, said, "President Khatami has done
well within the framework of the constitution, but I
think the authority of president in the constitution is
not strong enough."
The outspoken lawyer
explained, "I think President Khatami should have
submitted the empowerment bill [to increase the power of
the president] and modification of election laws at the
beginning of his tenure almost six years ago. Those are
the missed opportunities."
Despite her sharp
comment about him, Ebadi said. "I respect President
Khatami's views concerning the Nobel Peace prize."
Khatami, besieged by the press for his reaction to the
award as he exited parliament, had called the prize
"politically motivated" and "not as important as
scientific and cultural awards". She did however add, "I
never want to be in power and be a politician. I always
want to be with the people and campaign for human
rights."
Certainly, in the Yousefabad
neighborhood, a middle-class locality in Tehran in which
Ebadi lives, the people are convinced that their
now-world famous neighbor is firmly with them. An
elderly woman, whose son was among the 3,750 political
prisoners executed in summer of 1989, a few months
before the end of the Iran-Iraq war, spoke to IPS.
She preferred not to be named, but expressed the
hope that the Nobel Peace Prize would have an impact on
freedom of speech in Iran. She also said she was among
those who welcomed Shirin Ebadi home and had taken with
her a wreath of flowers, on behalf of all those families
whose loved ones were among the executed that bloody
summer.
For the present the reaction to the
official treatment of Ebadi on her return is still a
slow bitterness. "The Iranian middle class have showed
restraint and patience even as they shuttled from
terminal to terminal at [Tehran's] Mehrabad airport,
since the security police intentionally confused people
[about where Ebadi would arrive]," fumed Monir
Hasanpour, a member of the Iranian Bar Association.
In Iran, news of the award seems to have taken
conservative forces in the government as much by
surprise as it did Ebadi herself. State-run radio
stations controlled by the conservatives waited hours to
announce the prize, before finally according it the
briefest of mentions at the end of an afternoon news
bulletin.
This was in stark contrast to the
welcome placards hastily scribbled, but lustily waved,
in honor of Ebadi, which read, "Women's rights are human
rights," "Our beloved Ebadi, you are the symbol of Iran"
and "Political prisoners should be released".
Yet the contrast also highlights the fact that
an increasing number of Iranians no longer seem to
follow either the conservative or the reformist point of
view. Critics among the populace, and there are many,
see both as by-products of a moribund system, with the
most glaring lack being democracy.
Unhappiness
with the government is endemic, and yet there are few
mechanisms for public displeasure - especially for the
youth and the middle class - to emerge through an
effective political outlet. Political and social
observers point out that it is likely that Iran will
continue to see a struggle between reformists and
conservatives, the spread of discontent, and economic
change whose pace is far slower than the populace would
like.
This is the background for the intensity
of the welcome for Ebadi. "Thousands of people came on
their own to welcome an Iranian lady, and to shout,
'Shame on you, Khatami'," said Roghiyeh Rahmati, who is
75 and manages to walk with the help of her
grand-daughter.
"Iranian hardline newspapers and
specially state-run television and radio stations tried
to make sure that the least number of people would go to
meet the Nobel prize winner," continued Ziba Maleki, the
20-year-old who assists her grandmother.
The
fallout of the Ebadi effect will certainly have an
impact on the next parliamentary elections in Iran,
scheduled for the middle of February 2004. The mood for
now is grim. "The next election will be a litmus test
for the regime, and people should signal a loud 'no' by
not going to the ballot boxes," said Pejman Hajilou, a
builder.
Davoud Torbatiyan, an employee with a
public sector organization, sees the option as being
between "evil and less evil". If the election turnout is
low, he believes, "then the hardliners will occupy the
seats and the political situation will be worse, so I
think I will vote for any reformists who are a bit
different".
Ebadi herself epitomizes the
differences that exist. Along with other women, in 1994
she founded the Society for Protecting the Rights of the
Child, which lobbied the Iranian parliament for
introducing legal reforms in line with the UN Convention
on the Rights of the Child.
The Nobel laureate
has also defended a number of victims of human rights
violations. Her outspoken defense of human rights has
antagonized the Iranian judiciary, and hardline jurists
ordered her arrested in June 2000.
Now she said
she is considering "all aspects" about legally
representing the son of Zahra Kazemi, the Canadian
photojournalist who was beaten to death after the
authorities detained her on June 23. "It is too early,"
Ebadi told IPS. "But I do hope her blood will be
fruitful for freedom of speech and expression for all
journalists all over the world."
(Inter Press
Service)
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