Iran's Nobel Winner hits out at U.S. Foreign Policy by Inger Sethov Reuters 9:35am 11th Dec, 2003   December 10, 2003    OSLO - Iran's Shirin Ebadi became the first Muslim woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize Wednesday and sent a bold anti-war message to the West, accusing it of hiding behind the Sept. 11 attacks to violate human rights.    Reformist lawyer Ebadi, who was recognized for her work for the rights of women and children in Iran, was handed the prize by the head of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, Ole Danbolt Mjoes, at a glittering ceremony at the Oslo City Hall.    Ebadi slammed the U.S. administration for double standards in ignoring U.N. resolutions in the Middle East, while using them as a pretext to go to war in Iraq. The audience included Hollywood couple Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta-Jones, star hosts of Thursday's Nobel concert.    "In the past two years, some states have violated the universal principles and laws of human rights by using the events of Sept. 11 and the war on international terrorism as a pretext," she said in a prepared acceptance speech.    "Regulations restricting human rights and basic freedoms ... have been justified and given legitimacy under the cloak of the war on terrorism."    Wearing no headscarf for the ceremony, the 56-year-old who won the $1.4 million prize for her work for the rights of women and children in Iran, lashed out at what she called breaches of the Geneva conventions at the U.S. Guantanamo Bay military jail.    Ebadi said Guantanamo prisoners had been "without the benefit of the rights stipulated under the international Geneva conventions, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the (U.N.) International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights."    Ebadi, Iran's first female judge before the 1979 Islamic revolution forced her to step aside in favor of men, said it was worrying that human rights were violated by the same Western democracies that had initiated the principles.    The laureate said she, like other human rights activists, questioned why some U.N. resolutions were binding to the West and others were ignored.    Ebadi, who has become a symbol of reformist hope in Iran while labeled a political stooge of the West by conservative clerics, also pointed a finger at her own government, urging Tehran to accept that reform is inevitable.    "In fact, it is not so easy to rule over a people who are aware of their rights, using traditional, patriarchal and paternalistic methods," she said.    Copyright 2003 Reuters Ltd    December 11, 2003. "Shirin Ebadi receives Nobel Peace" ( Published by the Age)    Iranian lawyer Shirin Ebadi has received the 2003 Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo for her democracy-building efforts and her work to improve human rights in Iran, making her the first Muslim woman to receive the prestigious award. Ebadi, 56, received the prize from chairman of the Nobel Committee Ole Mjoes at a formal ceremony at Oslo's City Hall.    Dressed in a champagne skirt suit and wearing make-up, Ebadi was not wearing the hijab, the headscarf that under Iranian law is mandatory for all Iranian women, both inside and outside the country.    "All people are entitled to fundamental rights, and at a time when Islam is being demonised in many quarters of the Western world, it was the Norwegian Nobel Committee's wish to underline how important and how valuable it is to foster dialogue between peoples and between civilisations," Mjoes said in his introduction speech.    "This is a wish that most people share and that is why the reactions to this year's award have been so positive, even though we understand if you had perhaps hoped for a few more congratulations from the authorities of your own home country and region," he added.    When the Nobel Committee in October announced that it would award Ebadi the Peace Prize, the Iranian government waited several hours before congratulating the laureate.    And when Iranian reform president Mohammad Khatami finally, after four days, sent out a congratulatory statement, he emphasised that the Nobel Prize was "not very important".    "The Norwegian Nobel Committee is convinced that the Peace Prize has been awarded to the right person, at the right time and in the right place," Mjoes said today.    "Let us hope that the prize will also inspire changes in your beloved home country, Iran, as well as in many other parts of the world (...) Fundamental values, such as liberty, justice and respect for human rights will - in all places and at all times - need vigilant and critical champions," he added.    Islamic hardliners in Iran immediately warned that Ebadi would have to pay for appearing in public overseas without a headscarf and allegedly shaking the hand of a man.    "Mrs Ebadi has not only put into question Islamic precepts by unveiling herself," fumed a statement from student members of the Basij, a radical volunteer militia attached to Iran's Revolutionary Guards. "She has also provoked the religious sentiments of students by publicly shaking the hand of a man at Amir Kabir university, which has provoked several weeks of tensions at the university," said the statement, which was carried by the ultra-conservative Jomhuri Islami newspaper.    The Basij group is believed to have been behind an attack on Ebadi last week, when around 50 hardliners stopped her giving a speech at Al-Zahra women's university in Tehran by chanting slogans including "Death to Ebadi" and "Shirin the American, ask for pardon".    The Iranian human rights advocate is the third Muslim and the 11th woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize since it was founded in 1901...    - AFP
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