Home > Programs
> Democracy
Now! > Mon., June 14, 2004
Democracy Now!
ATTN: ALL STATIONS
From: Democracy Now!
Re: Rundown 6-14-04
PRSS Channel: A67.7
"Democracy is Not Going to Be Given Through Cluster
Bombs" - An Hour with 2003 Nobel Peace Prize Winner Shirin
Ebadi
"Democracy is Not Going to Be Given Through
Cluster Bombs" - An Hour with 2003 Nobel Peace Prize
Winner Shirin Ebadi
This past weekend, Iran's judiciary barred human rights
lawyer and 2003 Nobel Peace Prize winner Shirin Ebadi from
representing the family of Iranian-born Montreal photojournalist
Zahra Kazemi. [includes transcript]
Kazemi was arrested in June 2003 for taking photographs outside
Tehran's notorious Evin prison. She died in hospital on July
10, 2003 from a brain hemorrhage caused by a blow to the head.
Iranian authorities said Ebadi's name did not figure in the
list of approved lawyers on a summons for the next hearing
in the case.
Today we spend the hour with Judge Shirin Ebadi talking about
human rights, Iran, Iraq and Islam. A graduate of Tehran University,
Ebadi was one of Iran's first female judges in 1975. After
the 1979 Islamic revolution, she was forced to resign when
she was told she could no longer serve on the bench because
she was a woman.
She went on to establish a law practice representing political
dissidents, Iranian women and the families of artists and
intellectuals killed by the government. In 2000, she was thrown
in prison by for representing relatives of students killed
by pro-regime vigilantes. In addition to her work as a lawyer,
she has also written 11 books on human rights and on family
law setting out the rights of children.
In October 2003, she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, becoming
the first Muslim woman and first Iranian ever to receive the
award. Two months later, she refused to vote in the Iranian
parliamentary elections in which the more than 2,000 reformist
candidates were disqualified. Shirin Ebadi lives in Tehran
and is married with two daughters.
She recently embarked on a speaking tour around the country.
Last week she joined us in our firehouse studio for an extended
interview. Her answers are translated to English from her
native Farsi. I began by asking her about the situation in
Iraq.
* Shirin Ebadi, 2003 Nobel Peace Prize winner. Her answers
are translated to English from Frasi by Bennington College
professor Mansour Farhang, he is the former Iran ambassador
to the United Nations.
For a copy of today’s program, call 1 (800) 881 2359.
Our website is www.democracynow.org.
Our email address is mail@democracynow.org.
Democracy Now! is produced by Mike Burke, Sharif Abdel Kouddous,
Ana Nogueira, Elizabeth Press, Jeremy Scahill and Parvez Sharma.
Mike Di Filippo is our engineer.
Thanks also to Uri Galed, Angela Alston, Orlando Richards,
Simba Russeau, Johnny Sender, Rich Kim, Joe Murgio, John Randolph,
Chris Zucker, Karen Ranucci, Denis Moynihan, Eric Rweyemamu,
Jenny Filipazzo and Isis Phillips.
|
Listen
to the show
Help
whole
show
