Shirin Ebadi

[mehdirza]

Meet Shirin Ebadi

who is 2003 Peace Nobel Prize Owner and Persian.

 

[beer good]

Nobel Peace Prize winner, it should probably be pointed out. (Wikipedia) Not sure if she belongs in the Author forum, even if she has apparently written a couple of books too. But OK, hi there Shirin Ebadi. What did you want to say about her? Is Iran Awakening: A Memoir of Revolution and Hope any good?

 

[beer good]

Is Iran Awakening: A Memoir of Revolution and Hope any good?

Answering my own question: yes. Yes, it is. Shirin Ebadi's autobiography is an excellent read, not only for those who want to know something of the background of the mess currently developing in Iran, and why outside interference might be a Very Bad Idea, but also what it's like to live there, both as a free-thinker, as a woman, and as a lawyer - yes, the latter is very relevant - capped, bizarrely, with her having to sue the US Finance Dept. to be allowed to publish this very book in the US, since the embargo against Iran included literature.

Shirin Ebadi was the first woman to work as a judge in Iran in the 70s. The book follows her through her and the Iranian people's growing dissatisfaction with the shah, culminating in the 1979 revolution which she supported (and still supports)... and what happened when Khomeini's hardliners then took over and created a brand-new (or very old) kind of state: the Islamic Republic of Iran, where suddenly not only Ebadi found herself out of a job, but where the entire legal system she had spent her entire adult life learning was, overnight, replaced by a more-or-less arbitrary system of sharia laws where a woman is worth half a man and those who oppose the government oppose God himself and are treated accordingly. And as if that weren't enough, there was the war with Iraq on top of all of it.

And in this, she continued to work as a lawyer, specifically helping those who found themselves either screwed over by the system (rape victims and their families, mothers who couldn't get custody of their children) and those in more or less direct opposition to it. For all the horrific (or at times darkly comic) examples she cites, it's very hard not to be impressed by her ability to keep ducking and weaving despite being harrassed, jailed and finding her own name on official death lists. With no strict law to argue, she often finds herself arguing theology with judges - and even if they occasionally simply have her thrown out of court when they run out of arguments, she makes a difference. Not always, but simply getting the word out, simply keeping the debate alive in a country that's on its second generation as a theocracy, can mean the difference between life and death.

Over the last 23 years, from the day I was deposed as a judge to the trials in the revolutionary courts of Tehran, I've repeated my mantra: an interpretation of Islam which is compatible with equality and democracy is a true expression of faith. It's not religion which enslaves women, unlike what those say who want to keep women enslaved. That conviction, and the one that change must come peacefully from within, has always been the foundation of my work.

Iran Awakening isn't the dissident call to arms one might suspect; she got the Nobel peace prize, after all. It's a story of a woman who loves her country even though she (strongly, but politely) disagrees with her government, keeps her faith even when it's hijacked by fundamentalists, and works for justice and reform within a system that seems specifically designed to oppose both justice and reform, since overthrowing it completely simply isn't an option. Twitter is a fine tool; but if you want some more nuanced background, this makes a fine starting point.