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shirin ebadi
In Video Campaign, Renowned Iranians Call for 'More Peaceful Tomorrow'
Urging Congress to support Iran nuclear deal, one renowned Iranian political prisoner recorded his message from inside a prison cell
Aug 25, 2015
To highlight the human rights implications of the proposed nuclear agreement between Iran and the P5+1 nations, dozens of Iranian civil society leaders and pro-democracy activists have launched a new social media campaign expressing their support for the deal in a series of short, moving videos.
Many of the campaign's participants have been persecuted in Iran for their beliefs or activism, sentenced to house arrest or lengthy prison terms. Others who recorded videos include celebrated filmmaker Jafar Panahi, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Shirin Ebadi, and human rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh. One renowned Iranian political prisoner, Zia Nabavi--currently serving a sentence of ten years on charges of "creating unease in the public mind"--recorded his message from inside a prison cell.
"While one cannot be sure of what the future may hold, it can be said that the Iran Deal is a better choice for all of us as it demonstrates a more hopeful and peaceful tomorrow," Nabavi says.
"Those who have paid the highest price for the cause of democracy and human rights in Iran support the nuclear deal, not despite their pro-democracy and human rights activism, but precisely because of it."
--Mohamadreza Jalaeipour, Green Movement
"I support the Iran deal because I strongly believe that sanctions are violating the human rights of the Iranian people and more importantly because I support security and peace," says Ghoncheh Ghavami, the British-Iranian student who was jailed in 2014 for trying to attend a men's volleyball game. "It's time for Americans to contact their representatives in Congress and ask them to vote for peace. The whole world is watching."
Despite a well-funded opposition campaign, the Obama administration is "clearly winning the battle over the Iran deal," National Iranian American Council (NIAC) president Trita Parsi declared on Tuesday. It has done so "largely by focusing on the undeniable non-proliferation benefits of the deal."
"Put simply," Parsi wrote, "the deal ensures that two disasters are avoided: The disaster of Iran getting a nuclear bomb and the disaster of going to war with Iran."
But there are "numerous other benefits with this deal," he continued. "Dividends that the Obama administration have not relied on to seal the deal, but that are equally valid. One is how it improves the prospects for Iran moving in a positive direction internally regarding democratization and human rights."
And that aspect is what the new video campaign aims to underscore.
"We did this to show the American public and the world that not only the overwhelming majority of Iranians but also almost all leading Iranian human rights and pro-democracy activists, political prisoners, and independent voices of Iran's civil society wholeheartedly support the Iran Deal," Mohamadreza Jalaeipour, a former political prisoner who is at the helm of the video project, explained to Parsi.
"Those who have paid the highest price for the cause of democracy and human rights in Iran support the nuclear deal, not despite their pro-democracy and human rights activism, but precisely because of it," he said.
Meanwhile, U.S. Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) formally announced Tuesday that she would support the agreement. Politiconoted that this move brings the Obama administration closer to the 34 votes needed in the Senate to sustain any presidential veto of the resolution of disapproval on the nuclear deal.
"I support this deal because I believe it puts us in a better and stronger position to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons now and in the future," Murray said. "This deal gives us more tools to respond--not less, and it keeps the international community behind us in that effort."
"Just five more Senators need to endorse the agreement to ensure that a forthcoming resolution of disapproval can be blocked," NIAC Action said in a press statement.
"This deal is proving that it can stand on its own merits, but the battle is far from won," NIAC Action said. "Opponents of the agreement are already looking to additional legislation that could complicate implementation and kill the deal. The more lawmakers that come out in support now, the stronger the firewall will protect the agreement. It's time for other key Senators who have not announced their decision...to give peace a chance by publicly endorsing this deal."
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A Century of Women Working for Peace
Apr 30, 2015
THE HAGUE, Netherlands--One hundred years ago, more than 1,000 women gathered here in The Hague during World War I, demanding peace. Britain denied passports to more than 120 women, forbidding them from making the trip to suppress their peaceful dissent. Now, a century later, in these very violent times, nearly 1,000 women have gathered here again, this time from Africa, Asia and Latin America, as well as Europe and North America, saying "No" to wars from Iraq to Afghanistan to Yemen to Syria, not to mention the wars in our streets at home. They were marking the 100th anniversary of the founding of WILPF, the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom. Dr. Aletta Jacobs, a Dutch suffragist who co-founded the group a century ago, said the purpose of the original gathering in 1915 was to empower women "to protest against war and to suggest steps which may lead to warfare being an impossibility."
Among the women here were four Nobel Peace Prize winners. Shirin Ebadi was awarded the prize in 2003 for advocating for human rights for Iranian women, children and political prisoners. She was the first Muslim woman, and the first Iranian, to receive a Nobel. Nevertheless, she has lived in exile since 2009, and has only seen her husband once since then. "Had books been thrown at people, at the Taliban, instead of bombs, and had schools been built in Afghanistan," Ebadi said in her keynote address to the WILPF conference this week, "3,000 schools could have been built in memory of the 3,000 people who died on 9/11--at this time, we wouldn't have had ISIS. Let's not forget that the roots of the ISIS rest in the Taliban." She was joined by her sister laureates Leymah Gbowee, who helped achieve a negotiated peace during the civil wars in Liberia; Mairead Maguire, who won the peace prize in 1976 at the age of 32 for advancing an end to the conflict in her native Northern Ireland; and Jody Williams, a Vermonter who led the global campaign to ban land mines, and who now is organizing to ban "killer robots," weapons that kill automatically, without the active participation of a human controller.
These four world-renowned Nobel laureates were joined by nearly a thousand deeply committed peace activists from around the globe. Madeleine Rees, the secretary-general of WILPF, recalled the history of the first gathering in 1915, and how it was organized: "It wouldn't have happened, but for the suffrage movement," she told me, "because you don't just start a mass movement. You actually have to have an organizational structure to make that happen. That had started with the suffragette movement. ... Every single one of those women who went to The Hague ... were demanding the right to vote. They saw, quite rightly, that the absence of women in making decisions in government meant a greater likelihood of war."
Kozue Akibayashi is WILPF's new president. After World War II, the U.S. required that Japan's Constitution explicitly forbid it from pursuing war to settle disputes with foreign states. "The majority of people in Japan support the peace constitution," Akibayashi explained. President Barack Obama, however, like George W. Bush before him, is pressuring Japan to eliminate the pacifistic Article Nine from the Japanese Constitution. He hosted Japan's prime minister, Shinzo Abe, in Washington this week, celebrating Abe as he works to restore Japan's military to its former offensive capacity. Akibayashi and thousands of others also are protesting the planned expansion of the U.S. military presence on Okinawa.
Africa activist Hakima Abbas was also in The Hague. I interviewed her hours after mass graves were reported in Nigeria, containing victims of the militant group Boko Haram. The story of Boko Haram, she told me, "is an intersection with violent Islamist fundamentalisms, with global capitalism and with militarization ... fundamentalisms, though, don't start and end with Islamic fundamentalisms in Africa. We've seen Christian fundamentalisms in Uganda, and the persecution of LGBTQI people." She then made a connection to the street protests in Baltimore this week: "In your own country," she told me, "the white supremacist and Christian right fundamentalisms are exacerbated by the gun culture and the promotion of an armed police force, which is killing black women, men, trans people and children. ... So fundamentalisms is really something that we have to address globally."
I asked Shirin Ebadi if she had advice for the people of the world. She replied with a simple yet powerful prescription for peace, laying out the work for WILPF as it enters its second century: "Treat the people of Afghanistan the same as you treat your own people. Look at Iraqi children the same as you look at your own children. Then you will see that the solution is there."
Denis Moynihan contributed research to this column.
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Death to No One: 30 Years after the Iran Hostage Crisis
Nov 04, 2009
Today marks the 30th year since the 444-day Iran Hostage Crisis began in 1979. On this day the media traditionally offers us images of Iranians burning American flags and effigies of Uncle Sam. We are reminded of the great chasm of mistrust and misunderstanding that has marked the last three decades of US-Iranian relations. But, in the past year both Americans and Iranians have asked for something new. Americans have elected a president that promises to pursue diplomacy and Iranians have given birth to a popular democratic movement. So, we should not use this 30th anniversary of the hostage crisis to simply re-live tragedy and tension. Rather, today Americans have an opportunity to honestly reflect on our relationship with Iran and think about how to move forward.
For the past 30 years our government has dealt with Iran through policies of isolation and sanctions.
As we all witnessed amidst post-election unrest, Iranians have created a new dialogue within their country about respect for human rights and the democratic process. Now, those of us concerned with human rights must drastically alter our own dialogue towards Iran. If we herald the bravery of the "Green Movement," we should ask what effect crippling sanctions would have for Iran's human rights prospects? Days before the United Nations General Assembly opened in September 2009, Human Rights Watch, the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran, Nobel Laureate Shirin Ebadi and thousands of Iranians standing in solidarity with the Green Movement, called on the United Nations to prioritize human rights in discussions about Iran. The Preamble of the Universal Declaration for Human Rights avows that all Member States have pledged themselves "to achieve, in co-operation with the United Nations, the promotion of universal respect for and observance of human rights and fundamental freedoms."
Yet, in recent discussions regarding Iran, the United Nations Security Council plus Germany focused on the nuclear issue in every instance. In doing so, they have consistently neglected all critical and serious conversations about Iran's human rights violations.
Furthermore, the negotiating states chose to threaten the very fabric of the domestic resistance with "crippling sanctions." Economic sanctions that directly affect and isolate a civilian population weaken the ability of people committed to creating a better, more just governance.
Consider, for example, the effects of comprehensive sanctions imposed on Iraq for a period of 13 years. Those who bore the brunt of brutal and lethal punishment caused by economic sanctions were the elderly, the sick, the poor and the children. The economic sanctions directly contributed toward the deaths of hundreds of thousands of children. We should also remember that imposition of comprehensive, multilateral sanctions against Iraq proved to be a rallying cry for support of Saddam Hussein in countries where there was high antagonism against the United States. Saddam Hussein could claim to provide for the Iraqi people while the Americans insisted on starving them.
What effects would greater sanctions have on Iran? The Iranian regime has had years of practice in avoiding sanctions by relying on economic relations with China and Russia. The rising revenue and power of the underground economy has bolstered Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's allies who control it.
Meanwhile, sanctions leveled against Iran are creating hardships among the poorest communities in Iran. In 2007, the Iranian government announced fuel rations for private drivers. Due to Iran's limited refining capabilities, Iran is not energy independent, despite its vast oil resources. The decision to create rations has led to massive uproar and protest for a people who have already suffered extreme rates of unemployment. Inflation has soared to twenty-five percent. Also, in the last year, Iran has faced a serious drought. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has estimated Iran's loss of wheat production at thirty-three percent. The USDA also noted that, due to the drought and reduced reservoir levels, Iran's hydroelectric generation capacity and supply have been severely cut. These conditions will lead to severe agricultural problems and possibly to food shortages.
Furthering morally bankrupt policies that focus on the nuclear issue and greater sanctions against Iran will harm the Green Movement's capacity to struggle for democracy and human rights.
Iran has become the world's poster child for the deficit of democracy that plagues many nations. Citizens of all nations understand justice and agree upon its terms with remarkable consistency across borders. "The arc of history is long," Dr. Martin Luther King wrote, "but it bends towards justice." For 30 years our policies have failed to stand up for truth or justice.
A flyer from Tehran University marking this anniversary declares "Marg bar hich kas", "Death to no one". The Green Movement is turning a page in Iran's history, creating an opportunity for us to stand up for new policy based on human rights and the will of the people.
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