Nobel Laureate Ebadi: Islam misunderstood, misinterpreted

By Nathan Black | Thresher Editorial Staff

When Nobel laureate Shirin Ebadi denounced the U.S. invasion of Iraq Friday, the audience in the Grand Hall erupted in applause.

“The Western countries should not misuse democracy and human rights in order to attack and invade other countries,” Ebadi said through an interpreter at this semester’s second President’s Lecture Series address. “Human rights cannot be dropped on people with cluster bombs. You cannot export democracy like a commodity to other countries. Democracy and human rights are only achievable by the will of the people.”

The audience applauded throughout the event, sometimes clapping before the interpreter could translate Ebadi’s sentences.

Ebadi, an Iranian judge and internationally renowned human rights advocate, became the first Muslim woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize in 2003. She won the prize for her support for the rights of women, children and political prisoners in Iran.

She did not focus her speech on her sharp and well-received critiques of U.S. foreign policy but rather on perversions and misperceptions of Islam.

“The Islam which respects democracy, the Islam which respects the culture of pluralism, the Islam which believes in human rights — the true Islam — is under attack from two fronts,” she said. “One [front is] the fundamentalists, and the other side is the people who are trying to use the misbehavior of others … to say that this is the real Islam.”

Ebadi began her lecture by asking whether Islam and human rights are compatible.

“The big question is whether the religion of Islam is in contradiction with human rights, … whether Islam gives a sword to the hand of governments in order to fight human rights,” she said.

Ebadi noted that oppression of women is commonplace in many Islamic countries, including her own.

“[In Iran], the value of a life of a woman is half of the value of a life of a man,” she said.

However, Ebadi said, women have achieved significant freedoms in other Islamic countries such as Bangladesh, Indonesia and Pakistan. Islam itself does not call for the inequality of women, she said.

“Islam is the religion of fraternity and equality,” Ebadi said. “In this religion, all creatures are created of God, and there is no distinction between them.”

Also, Ebadi said, people should not conclude that Islam is inherently undemocratic because some Islamic countries are not democracies.

“We see ideologues who argue that Islam is in contradiction to democracy,” she said. “But in some other countries like Malaysia, they have a relatively advanced democracy. … The religion of Islam was established based on democracy and participation of citizens.”

The problem is that Islam is being misinterpreted to serve malicious ends, she said.

“A lot of governments have been hiding behind the shield of Islam to justify their suppression … with the wrong interpretation of religion,” Ebadi said.

And at the same time, enemies of Islam use the political systems and human rights records of some Islamic countries against the religion, she said. Ebadi said Muslims must stop misperceptions about Islam.

“The duty of each intellectual Muslim … is to paint the true face of Islam, which is saturated in compassion,” she said.

Meanwhile, people should realize that the Islam of terrorists is not genuine, she said.

“The misbehavior of people should be separated from the religion or the culture that people belong to,” Ebadi said. “If they kill an innocent person or if they adhere to terrorism by the name of Islam, you should be sure that they are misusing the name of Islam. … When the state of Israel tries to ignore the resolutions of the United Nations, … we never try to say [that behavior] belongs to Judaism.”

Ebadi closed her speech, which was the annual Martin Luther King, Jr. memorial lecture, with a dream reminiscent of the one King depicted. Ebadi’s dream was of a world without poverty, discrimination and violence, and in which people are conscious of each other’s problems.

“Having a dream is a very important part of human history,” Ebadi said. “Our challenge … is to be practical and demand the impossible.”

Following the lecture, an audience member asked what Iranian-Americans should do. Ebadi said Iranian-Americans should work to set up Iranian studies centers at U.S. universities — she had said in her speech that she hoped Rice would soon have such a center. Ebadi added that people should voice their opposition to the Iraq war, again drawing applause.

Another attendee asked what Ebadi meant when she said, “Human rights cannot be dropped on people with cluster bombs.” Ebadi said she was referencing the U.S. invasion of Iraq. The attendee then asked, “What about terrorists attacking the United States?”

Ebadi said she felt sorrow over the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 but that the U.S. should have known such an attack was possible when it helped the Taliban come to power.

“When you are helping the undemocratic governments, you are putting a gun to your head,” she said.

Another question concerned how the United States should respond to the current Iranian regime.

“The U.S. and Iran should be in direct dialogue,” Ebadi said.

Mariam Chughtai (Lovett ‘05) said Ebadi’s opinions on Islam were refreshing.

“I think she voiced something that we in the educated Muslim community in the United States have been waiting [for],” Chughtai said. “Muslims in the U.S. need to come out and express their opinion about Islam — that we are not a terrorist-oriented religion and that our religion has been hijacked.”

Chughtai said she liked how Ebadi equated women’s rights with human rights.

“The best thing was that she talked about [how] she’s not for women’s rights — she’s for human rights, because women are human beings,” Chughtai said.

Baker College sophomore Salman Ahmed said he agreed with Ebadi’s stance against exporting democracy.

“[Democracy] is something that has to be earned,” Ahmed said. “If you spoil a child, it’s not going to have good consequences.”

February 10, 2006

The Student Newspaper of Rice University

Nobel Laureate Ebadi: Islam misunderstood, misinterpreted

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