Open Letter to Defend Shirin Ebadi

From the Campaign for Peace and Democracy comes this open letter in defense of Shirin Ebadi, the Iranian 2003 Nobel Peace Laureate and defender of women's rights and human rights.I think it does an excellent job of disentangling support for human rights in Iran from the bellicosity that sometimes accompanies it. In fact, as Shirin Ebadi herself told Amy goodman (Democracy Now, February 4, 2009)

"A military attack on Iran or even a threat of a military attack on Iran will deteriorate the situation of human rights and women's rights, because it gives an excuse to the government to repress them more and more often."

You can add your name or make a tax-deductible donation to publicize the statement atthe Campaign for peace and Democracy website. Problems? E mail the CPD at cpd@igc.org.

IRANIAN HUMAN RIGHTS LEADER SHIRIN EBADI IN DANGER Peace Activists Call on Teheran to Ensure Her Safety

To: Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Ayatollah Shahrudi, Head of the Judiciary Mohammad Khazaee, Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the United Nations Islamic Republic of Iran

We are writing to protest in the strongest terms the threats that have been mounted against Shirin Ebadi, co-founder of the Defenders of Human Rights Center and the Organization for the Defense of Mine Victims. Ebadi, the 2003 Nobel Peace Laureate, has spoken out vigorously and repeatedly for women's rights and human rights for all in her own country. She has also been a vocal and effective advocate for peace and against military attacks on Iran in international forums.

Ebadi today is in considerable danger. On December 21, 2008, officials prevented a planned celebration of the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and forced the closure of the Defenders of Human Rights Center (DHRC), which Ebadi helped found. The Center provides legal defense for victims of human rights abuses in Iran. The group had invited nearly 300 human rights defenders and supporters to the private celebration. A few hours before the start of the program, members of state security forces, and plainclothes agents entered the DHRC building. They filmed the premises, made an inventory, and forced the center's members to leave before putting locks on all entrances.

On December 29 officials identifying themselves as tax inspectors arrived at Ebadi's private law office in Tehran and removed documents and computers, despite her protests that the materials contained protected lawyer-client information.

Ebadi's former secretary has been arrested, and on January 1, 2009 a mob of 150 people gathered outside her home, chanting slogans against her. They tore down the sign to her law office, which is in the same building, and marked the building with graffiti. The police, who have been quick to close down unauthorized peaceful demonstrations, did nothing to stop the vandalism.

In similar cases, Iranian authorities frequently have followed office raids and other harassment with arbitrary arrests and detention, often leading to prosecutions on dubious charges

As peace activists, we have a special concern for Shirin Ebadi. Ebadi has spoken out, as we have, against any U.S. military attack on Iran. In 2005, Ebadi wrote, "American policy toward the Middle East, and Iran in particular, is often couched in the language of promoting human rights. No one would deny the importance of that goal. But for human rights defenders in Iran, the possibility of a foreign military attack on their country represents an utter disaster for their cause." ("The Human Rights Case Against Attacking Iran" by Shirin Ebadi and Hadi Ghaemi, The New York Times, Feb 8, 2005).

We oppose any military attack on Iran by the United States or any other nation. We reject too the hypocrisy of the U.S. government when it protests repression in Iran while turning a blind eye to or actively abetting comparable or worse repression in countries with which it is allied like Saudi Arabia, Egypt, or Israel in the Occupied Territories. And we condemn as well Washington's double standard in criticizing Iranian repression while itself engaging in torture and undermining civil liberties at home. But that in no way deters us from protesting in the strongest terms the denial of basic democratic rights to the people of Iran. We protest because we believe in these rights, and also because we see social justice activists in Iran and all countries as our natural allies in building a peaceful, democratic world.

We call on you to cease and desist from the threats to Shirin Ebadi, to move immediately to prevent any further harassment, and to ensure Shirin Ebadi's safety and security.

INITIAL SIGNERS Ervand Abrahamian, Janet Afary, Michael Albert, Kevin B. Anderson, Bettina Aptheker, David Barsamian, Rosalyn Baxandall, Medea Benjamin, Michael Bérubé, Norman Birnbaum, Eileen Boris, Roane Carey, Joshua Cohen, Noam Chomsky, Gail Daneker, Manuela Dobos, Ariel Dorfman, Martin Duberman, Carolyn Eisenberg, Jethro Eisenstein, Zillah Eisenstein, Daniel Ellsberg, Jodie Evans, Gertrude Ezorsky, Samuel Farber, John Feffer, Barry Finger, Joseph Gerson, Jill Godmilow, Arun Gupta, Thomas Harrison, Nader Hashemi, Adam Hochschild, Nancy Holmstrom, Doug Ireland, Melissa Jameson, Jan Kavan, Nikki Keddie, Leslie Kielson, Ian Keith, Kathy Kelly, Assaf Kfoury, Naomi Klein, Dan La Botz, Joanne Landy, Jesse Lemisch, Sue Leonard, Mohammed Mamdani, Betty Mandell, Marvin Mandell, Kevin Martin, Scott McLemee, David McReynolds, Ali Moazzami, Claire G. Moses, Molly Nolan, David Oakford, Bertell Ollman, Christopher Phelps, Charlotte Phillips MD, Katha Pollitt, Danny Postel, Dennis Redmond, Sonia Jaffe Robbins, Matthew Rothschild, Jason Schulman, Stephen Shalom, Adam Shatz, Alice Slater, Stephen Soldz, Stephen Steinberg, David Swanson, Chris Toensing, David Vine, Lois Weiner, Naomi Weisstein, Reginald Wilson, Kent Worcester, Stephen Zunes

Comments (11)

1. KATHA: "In fact, as Shirin Ebadi herself told Amy goodman (Democracy Now, February 4, 2009) "A military attack on Iran or even a threat of a military attack on Iran will deteriorate the situation of human rights and women's rights, because it gives an excuse to the government to repress them more and more often."

   Seems that with her office under assault by the Iranian Gubberment, protestors out her door.......Ms. Ebadi and her cause are fearful of more excuses by "the government to repress them more and more often"?

   Is anyone serious that IF Iran is attacked, its response if to crack down even more, on women? Did this happen in Gaza when Israel invaded? Or Southern Lebanon when Israel half-heartedly went in? Or Yeman when Ethiopia invaded?

   No, I'm NOT advocating an attack by the US on Iran....just poking here!

   Posted by Happy at 02/26/2009 @ 11:49am

2. "In fact, as Shirin Ebadi herself told Amy goodman (Democracy Now, February 4, 2009)

   "A military attack on Iran or even a threat of a military attack on Iran will deteriorate the situation of human rights and women's rights, because it gives an excuse to the government to repress them more and more often." '

   What would an attack on Israel by Iranian backed groups or Iran itself, have on human rights or on women..in Israel or Iran?

   Posted by YourJomamma at 02/26/2009 @ 12:06pm

3. No, I'm NOT advocating an attack by the US on Iran....just poking here!---Posted by Happy at 02/26/2009 @ 11:49am

   He can't. Otherwise he'd have to explain why DUBYA didn't do it!

   Posted by Mask at 02/26/2009 @ 12:28pm

4. Posted by Happy at 02/26/2009 @ 11:49am

   After the U.S. and the U.K. were hit by terrorists, both governments upped the surveillance and harrassment of non-violent community groups, including Quakers and Sierra Club types. Even if most of the feminist movement was not subjected to this, I'm sure that those who got involved in anti-war organizing were caught up in the domestice surveillance nets, as well.

   When Cuba cracked down on dissidents a few years ago, I don't think every person and organization had taken money from the U.S. or visited its embassy, but I'd bet that the secret police were quite happy to gather up whoever else had pissed them off lately.

   If Iran is attacked, women's rights organizations could find even there current precarious position slipping out from under them. Even in the best of times, they are viewed by the more hardline elements in the regime as suspicious, if not downright seditious. Along with other despised dissident groups, like human rights and independent labor organizations, they would probably be hoovered up by the secret police or the Revolutionary Guard at the first sign of domestic crisis. We are, after all, talking about a much more authoritarian regime than in the U.S. or the U.K. (yes, those of my fellow leftists who think we are already living in fascist Amerikkka are wrong) and a women's rights movement that is not just another "special interest" but is seen as outside the bounds of acceptable Islamic Republic opinion.

   Posted by cka2nd at 02/26/2009 @ 5:08pm

5. After the U.S. and the U.K. were hit by terrorists, both governments upped the surveillance and harrassment....

   When Cuba cracked down on dissidents a few years ago, I don't think every person and organization had taken money from the U.S. or visited its embassy...

   If Iran is attacked, women's rights organizations could find even there current precarious position slipping out from under them....

   Posted by cka2nd at 02/26/2009 @ 5:08pm

   Quite a stretch, all over the map/globe!

   Any country that's hit by terrorists--and you left out Spain, Indonesia, India, Saudi Arabia, China, Egypt, Iraq.....--will up surveillance, some of which will NOT be passive & cross into "harassment".

   For Katha's present `cause'....here's the description:

   "...Ebadi, the 2003 Nobel Peace Laureate, has spoken out vigorously and repeatedly for women's rights and human rights for all in her own country. She has also been a vocal and effective advocate for peace and against military attacks on Iran in international forums."

   With Nobel winner Ebadi effectively espousing "against military attacks on Iran in international forums", I just don't see her & her group as being in GREATER peril if Iran is attacked.....it actually makes more sense for Iran to divert the resources used NOW to keep an eye on her, to beef up the surveillance, and likely arrests, of those internal groups that wants Iran to fall...the Kurds, for one!

   Posted by Happy at 02/26/2009 @ 6:07pm

6. "What would an attack on Israel by Iranian backed groups or Iran itself, have on human rights or on women..in Israel or Iran?"

   1. peace activists, like myself and presumably ms. pollit, would denouce any military attack on innocent people, especially women and children, whether it came from iran, israel or whomever.

   2. iran hasn't attacked anybody. and if they have contributed to groups who have attacked israel, then that wouldn't necessarily be unjustified, as israel HAS repeatedly attacked those groups. whether the attacks, on either side, are justified, is not the point. the point is that iran's (and israel's) attacks on innocent people are wrong, and the oppression of women is wrong.

   3. i don't think anyone can deny that israel's military behavior, especially recently, has been fairly egregious in comparison to iran's. i don't recall iran attacking anyone in 25+ years. whether they fund proxy groups, which nobody denies, and how these funds are utilized, is difficult to decipher. but by and large, iran's overt military presence is nowhere to be seen, whereas israel is a fighting machine.

   Posted by darladoon at 02/26/2009 @ 7:07pm

7. whereas israel is a fighting machine. Posted by darladoon at 02/26/2009 @ 7:07pm | ignore this person | warn this person

   no one is firing rockets into Iran, never forget that.

   if Iran is supplying those rockets, they are complicit.

   Darl, it's not so simple.

   Posted by emile duBois at 02/27/2009 @ 6:29pm

8. Forget War, let find peace. Please my country for peace! You are welcome to <a href="http://www.welcome-vietnam.info">Vietnam</a>

   Posted by vnttn at 03/01/2009 @ 10:01pm

9. defend blackcoptermedia.com, Let the Israeli's be! You need to study more history of the region that would be my first suggestion! Then you can talk with clarity on the region!

   Posted by thesid at 03/02/2009 @ 5:40pm

10. 'It's true that Islamic fundamentalists are the most active and violent attackers of free speech and the most tyrannical enforcers of religious conformity through the organs of the state.' -- Katha Pollitt -- 18 February, 2009 -- http://www.th enation.com/do c/20090 309/pollitt?rel=hp _columns

    Posted by HonestLiberal at 03/03/2009 @ 2:00pm

11. emile duBois: It wouldn't surprise me to find Iranian complicity in attacks on Israel. Neither would it suprise me to find that if oppression of Palestinians didn't exist, Iran would bowl over Saudi Arabia to invent it. The phrase "Islam is not a religion of peace" has been made self-evident to all but the most besot of the fuzzy, multi-culti set. Still, I don't think there will be any achievement in attacking Iran. It's way too late; Iran will get the bomb. One might as well support Shirin Ebadi and her colleagues and wait until an Iranian-supplied device reeks havoc somewhere and the Katha Pollitts of the world scramble to explain how it could have been averted if only Westerners weren't such racists and sexists.

    Posted by DP in TC at 03/03/2009 @ 4:17pm