Iranian Alert -- October 13, 2003 -- IRAN LIVE THREAD PING LIST

The US media almost entirely ignores news regarding the Islamic Republic of Iran. As Tony Snow of the Fox News Network has put it, “this is probably the most under-reported news story of the year.” But most American’s are unaware that the Islamic Republic of Iran is NOT supported by the masses of Iranians today. Modern Iranians are among the most pro-American in the Middle East.

There is a popular revolt against the Iranian regime brewing in Iran today. Starting June 10th of this year, Iranians have begun taking to the streets to express their desire for a regime change. Most want to replace the regime with a secular democracy. Many even want the US to over throw their government.

The regime is working hard to keep the news about the protest movement in Iran from being reported. Unfortunately, the regime has successfully prohibited western news reporters from covering the demonstrations. The voices of discontent within Iran are sometime murdered, more often imprisoned. Still the people continue to take to the streets to demonstrate against the regime.

In support of this revolt, Iranians in America have been broadcasting news stories by satellite into Iran. This 21st century news link has greatly encouraged these protests. The regime has been attempting to jam the signals, and locate the satellite dishes. Still the people violate the law and listen to these broadcasts. Iranians also use the Internet and the regime attempts to block their access to news against the regime. In spite of this, many Iranians inside of Iran read these posts daily to keep informed of the events in their own country.

This daily thread contains nearly all of the English news reports on Iran. It is thorough. If you follow this thread you will witness, I believe, the transformation of a nation. This daily thread provides a central place where those interested in the events in Iran can find the best news and commentary. The news stories and commentary will from time to time include material from the regime itself. But if you read the post you will discover for yourself, the real story of what is occurring in Iran and its effects on the war on terror.

I am not of Iranian heritage. I am an American committed to supporting the efforts of those in Iran seeking to replace their government with a secular democracy. I am in contact with leaders of the Iranian community here in the United States and in Iran itself.

If you read the daily posts you will gain a better understanding of the US war on terrorism, the Middle East and why we need to support a change of regime in Iran. Feel free to ask your questions and post news stories you discover in the weeks to come.

If all goes well Iran will be free soon and I am convinced become a major ally in the war on terrorism. The regime will fall. Iran will be free. It is just a matter of time.

PS I have a daily ping list and a breaking news ping list. If you would like to receive alerts to these stories please let me know which list you would like to join.

EBADI: ISLAMIC TENETS SUPPORT HUMAN RIGHTS

By Safa Haeri

PARIS 12 Oct. (IPS)

Mrs. Shirin Ebadi, the first Iranian to win the prestigious Nobel Peace Prize for 2003 reiterated on Sunday that “all principles and tenets of Islam serve to promote humanitarian values and human rights”.

In her first interview with the official Iranian news agency IRNA, Mrs. Ebadi, a female judge before the victory of the Islamic Revolution of 1979 added that Islam is “definitely” against terrorism and violence, stressing that those advocating such practices were
absolutely not Muslims.

The interview, granted to IRNA in the French Capital where she was on a private visit when she was informed about the Prize being attributed to her by the Norwegian Nobel Academy was seen by Iranian political analyst as the first indication from the authorities that they have “taken act” of the issue.

So far, none of the top Iranian ruling clerics, including Ayatollah Ali Khameneh’i, the leader of the Islamic Republic or President Mohammad Khatami, the promoter of the “dialogue among civilisations” described routinely by the Western press as a “moderate” have had a single word and the public media, that are controlled by the conservatives, reported the news briefly and with hours of delay, a clear sign of their visible anger to see a female Iranian human rights activist winning the Prize.

Even IRNA, which is close to the Iranian reformists, failed to mention that Mrs. Ebadi is an Iranian, stating only that she was “the first Muslim woman” to ever get the much envied Prize.

“Even though some reformists tenors and even a high-ranking government official in Hojjatoleslam Mohammad Ali Abtahi, the Vice-president for Legal and Parliamentary Affairs have congratulated Mrs. Ebadi, but her sounding and surprise victory has visibly taken the conservatives aback”, one Iranian analyst told Iran Press Service.

“However, the IRNA interview shows that they are trying to find a way to put up with the event that has filled all Iranians except the hard liners with joy and pride”, he added speaking on condition of anonymity.

“Ebadi regretted that certain western states blame the sublime religion of Islam for acts of a few Muslims, whereas there are many Christians who indulge themselves in murder and terrorist acts, but Muslims never say they do so because of their religion”, she was quoted by IRNA.

Asked if the peace award had been granted to her for political reasons, the 56 years-old Ebadi said "I believe this is not a political matter and I am of the opinion that the world, through this award, has come to recognize the freedom-seeking campaign of Muslim women”.

“I have been selected to receive this award just as a Muslim woman”, Mrs. Ebadi went on, adding that Iranian women’s conditions have been "improving" over recent years.

Ebadi, however, admitted that the law prevailing in Iran regarding women’s rights “still needed to be revised with contradictions required to be removed”.

But in a press conference attended by more than 200 correspondents from all over the world, she defended secularism, saying that many grand ayatollahs agrees with her that religion must be kept separate from politics.

In an interview published by the influential French daily "Le Monde", the Iranian lawyer and activist said she hopes her prize will encourage human rights campaigners in Iran and in the world.

She also said Iranians are "profoundly disappointed" by Iran's Islamic Revolution and called for political, social, economic, and civil-rights reforms.

“Iran's Islamic Republic cannot continue if it fails to evolve and heed the people's desire for major reform”, she emphasised.

"It's very good for me, it's very good for human rights in Iran, it's very good for democracy in Iran," Ms. Ebadi said in a news conference at the headquarters of the International Federation of Human Rights. "This prize," she added, "gives me energy to pursue my combat for a better future”.

For years, Ms. Ebadi and two other women, Mehrangiz Kar, a more secular human rights and family lawyer, and Shahla Lahidji, an outspoken publisher specializing in books about women, were labeled the "Three Musketeers" because they were considered the country's most active proponents of women's rights. Ms. Lahidji has been pressured into silence; Ms. Kar now lives in the United States.

Ms. Ebadi was herself arrested and imprisoned in June 2000 with another reformist lawyer, Hojjatoleslam Mohsen Rahami, accused of distributing a taped confession of a member of a vigilante militia involved in violence against reformists.

After being jailed for three weeks, she was sentenced by a closed-door court to 15 months in prison and barred from practicing law for five years. Eventually, the sentence was suspended, and she was required only to pay a fine of about $200.

In her IRNA interview Mrs Ebadi also observed that the situation of women in most Islamic countries as "not favourable" and said the cause of contrasts in these societies is the culture of male-dominance.

EBADI NOBEL PEACE 121003

http://www.iran-press-service.com/articles_2003/Oct-2003/ebadi_nobel_peace_121003.html

Nobel intentions

One peace prize does not turn the west into the defender of women's rights worldwide

Natasha Walter
Monday October 13, 2003
The Guardian

In Tehran a few years ago I met Shirin Ebadi, the lawyer who has just won the Nobel Peace prize. Her integrity and bravery, even in the face of frequent threats and arrests, certainly make her an outstanding figure in her country and beyond - and of course a great recipient of the prize.
But she would be the first to argue that in many ways she is not unique in Iran. She is part of a growing reform movement, and in her views on women's rights she seems to speak for many Iranian women. The hardliners' struggle to keep control of her country constantly runs up against the growing awareness of women, and the younger generation has been inspired by Ebadi and other female lawyers and journalists and politicians. Everywhere in Iran there are educated, forceful women who are dissatisfied with their situation and who are arguing for reform. Ebadi herself told me: "Even the traditional women here - even those who have not been educated and who live at home - even they are looking for their rights."

We in the west often seem to believe that we have a sort of monopoly on feminism. Maybe it is hard for us to believe that women who wear those dark veils can be working for equality. But, as Ebadi says constantly, the clothes are not that important. "There is something more important than our hijab here in Iran," she said to me. "Other rights must come first. When a man can easily divorce a woman and she struggles to get a divorce from him - this is more important than whether or not we cover our hair. When men automatically get custody of children, this is even more important. When we have solved our other problems, then let's talk about headscarves."

It is important to listen to women such as Ebadi and to remember that the traditions which are often seen to divide women are not as important as what unites them - the desire for those irreducible human rights, such as equality before the law, equal political power, and protection from violence. If this award helps us to recognise how women in every culture, including Muslim countries, feel that they own feminism, then it is a precious gift not just to Shirin Ebadi and the Iranian reformists, but to us in the west.

But in another way the award was a rather easy one for a committee based in western Europe to give out - not so much for what it celebrates, but for what it criticises. Of course we all hate the Iranian government right now: part of the "axis of evil", with its nuclear programme and its wicked views on the United States and Israel, Iran is an easy country to demonise.

But let's not forget that women elsewhere in the region still face almost insurmountable problems - and that some of them are made harder because of the behaviour of the west. It would have been interesting to see how western governments might have responded, for instance, to an award for a feminist in Saudi Arabia or Kuwait, where the regimes that have held back women's rights are actively supported.

And if you are looking for women to honour in the Muslim world for their human rights struggles, it is hard not to talk about the activists in the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (Rawa). Their work against the Taliban has become legendary; they are the women who kept hope alive through their underground work in Afghanistan and among the refugees. Yet their struggle has not stopped since the UN-backed government took over. These women still work under threat to their lives, and they are still silenced and sidelined.

Although Rawa has made constant demands to the UN - and to the American and British governments - for more respect for women and children's rights, they have seen women's interests pushed aside in the outside powers' eagerness to appease the warlords. Now Afghans are seeing the small advances that women have made threatened by continuing insecurity on the ground and the outright misogyny of the ruling factions that are backed by the west.

But to give such public recognition to one of their activists, such as the charismatic Sahar Saba, or the group as a whole, would be very troubling for the west. It is much easier for us to reward a woman who is working against a government no one loves than it would be to reward a woman working against a government the west has created.

As Ebadi reminds us, the struggle for women's rights is an international struggle. But it is a struggle where western powers are not automatically on the right side.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/iran/story/0,12858,1061717,00.html

Today: October 13, 2003

Nuke Dispute Tightens U.S., Iran Tension

By BRIAN MURPHY

ASSOCIATED PRESS

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - At a Tehran University forum on nuclear technology, a bright green banner proclaimed the nation's "absolute right" to build reactors. Nearby, a student took notes in a folder decorated with Uncle Sam chasing an elusive atom around the Middle East.

The scene last week was another snapshot from one side of the huge gap between Iran and the United States. The tremors over Iran's nuclear ambitions have apparently wrenched it even wider at a delicate time.

Russia is building a nuclear reactor for Iran that the United States fears could be part of efforts to produce material for atomic weapons. In response, the U.N. International Atomic Energy Agency has set an Oct. 31 deadline for Iran to prove it has no secret agenda for producing nuclear weapons.

Iran is also being pressed to sign an additional protocol to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty giving U.N. inspectors unfettered access to any site.

The tension has reduced hopes that shared regional interests - topped by Afghanistan and Iraq - could draw the United States and Iran into the most productive dialogue since relations ended after the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Instead, many Iranian leaders and opinion-shapers have revived the bitterness that followed President Bush's "axis of evil" label last year. They see Washington directing the international pressure to clarify Iran's nuclear objectives and capabilities - though the European Union and others also fully support unrestricted U.N. inspections of nuclear sites.

"It's a classic case of two sides of the same coin," said Davoud Hermidas Bavand, a Tehran-based political analyst. "The United States sees big worries. The Iranians say they are being unfairly bullied."

Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei - the pinnacle of power in Iran - claims the United States wants to cripple Iran's economic potential by blocking nuclear development. It's one of the few messages that unite feuding reformers and conservatives.

"There is the right for all countries to have the peaceful use of nuclear technology," an Iranian atomic scientist, Mohammad Kazem Marashi, told a gathering of Tehran University students and professors. "Every time someone mentions nuclear power all they can think of is bombs."

Weapons are clearly on the minds of Washington and some allies.

The White House fears a chilling scenario: Iran could develop nuclear warheads for its Shahab-3 missiles, which could reach as far as Israel. That could touch off a regional arms race or an Israeli pre-emptive strike - as in 1981 when Israeli warplanes hit an Iraqi nuclear reactor.

Iran insists it has nothing to hide and wants nuclear plants for research and power - looking decades ahead to when its oil reserves dwindle.

But there is resistance to the U.N. demands that Iran allow international inspections. The Iranian leadership wants assurances that the nuclear reviews won't turn into spying, with inspectors combing ministries and offices.

That's as far as the objections go for the moment. Iran does not want an impasse that ends up in the U.N. Security Council, which could lead to international sanctions and a new host of problems for the ruling theocracy.

"Every way you look at it, the stakes are very high and getting higher," said Jonathan Stevensen, a regional analyst at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London.

It's also thrown obstacles into what could have been a rare patch of common ground between Iran and the United States.

Iran sits between two of Washington's biggest burdens: Afghanistan and Iraq. And Iran shares the West's immediate goals in those countries.

A modernized Afghanistan would open important new commercial routes for Iran. A stabilized Iraq could boost Iran's regional power as the ally of Iraq's Shiite Muslim majority.

Iranian and American envoys have taken part in Afghan meetings. Iran is expected to attend an Iraq donors' conference in Spain later this month.

But - for the moment - much of the diplomatic energy is being diverted to the nuclear dispute.

The United States seeks to keep a united front with European allies, although some have said Iran should be allowed to pursue nuclear power if inspections are thorough.

Iran, meanwhile, must deal with internal quarrels on how far to push nuclear development.

A Russian-built reactor could go into service as early as 2005, and Iran says it will continue to enrich uranium for peaceful purposes. Highly enriched uranium is needed for nuclear weapons and lower grades are used in power plants and research.

Some hard-line groups have openly urged Iran to develop nuclear weapons, citing neighboring Pakistan's nuclear program and the belief that Israel has nuclear warheads. Israel has never admitted to having a nuclear program.

In July, the conservative Students' Islamic Association urged Iran's government to "openly and seriously" develop nuclear arms as "deterrence against our enemies." Others have also insisted Iran should hold open the right to develop such weapons.

http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/w-me/2003/oct/13/101307463.html

Today: October 13, 2003

U.N. Nuclear Agency Chief to Visit Iran

ASSOCIATED PRESS

VIENNA, Austria (AP) - The U.N. nuclear watchdog agency chief will visit Iran this week to help persuade Tehran to meet an Oct. 31 deadline to prove it is not producing atomic weapons, a diplomat said Monday.

The Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency said only that Mohamed ElBaradei had received a formal invitation. But a Western diplomat close to the agency told The Associated Press that ElBaradei had accepted and would head to Tehran on Thursday.

The IAEA has been pressing Iran to prove it is not producing nuclear weapons as the United States suspects. Iran has protested the Oct. 31 deadline and said its nuclear program is to generate electricity as its oil reserves decline.

Failure to satisfy the IAEA could result in Iran's being referred to the U.N. Security Council, which could impose sanctions. The IAEA board of governors will meet on Nov. 20 to assess the Iranians' compliance.

Iran is a signatory of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, which bans the spread of nuclear weapons.

Pierre Goldschmidt, an IAEA deputy director general, and another top agency official held two days of talks in Tehran earlier this month. An IAEA inspection team is also in Tehran to carry out routine inspections of Iran's nuclear facilities.

A senior Iranian official said earlier this month that the IAEA representatives had reached "total agreement" with Iran on measures to prove the country's nuclear program is peaceful.

Iran has agreed to provide the IAEA with a list of imported equipment it contends had been contaminated.

In recent weeks, Iran has twice confirmed that particles of weapons-grade uranium had been found in separate places in the country. The government said the particles came from imported nuclear equipment that had been contaminated.

http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/w-me/2003/oct/13/101307601.html

Israeli submarine fleet 'can now launch nuclear weapons'

By David Blair in Jerusalem

(Filed: 13/10/2003)

Israel has acquired the capability of launching a nuclear strike from submarines, according to reports yesterday. This puts it among the handful of countries able to deliver atomic weapons from land, sea and air.

With American help, Israeli technicians have modified US-supplied cruise missiles to carry nuclear warheads. Commentators believe that the disclosure, in the Los Angeles Times, is intended as a message to Iran about the risks of its nuclear ambitions.

Iran has been given until the end of this month to allow international inspectors unfettered access to its nuclear facilities.

Both America and Israel believe that Iran is close to acquiring nuclear weapons. This would break Israel's nuclear monopoly in the Middle East and change the strategic balance of the region.

America has supplied Israel with Harpoon sea-launched cruise missiles - originally with conventional warheads - for deployment on three Dolphin class submarines. The diesel-electric submarines were bought from Germany four years ago.

The Israeli government does not comment on its nuclear capacity. But experts agree that Israel has the world's sixth largest nuclear arsenal with some 200 warheads, compared with Britain's 185.

Israeli commentators have no doubt that the latest reports are credible and cite the priorities of Mossad, the foreign intelligence agency.

"Heading off Iran's attempt to attain nuclear capability is one of Mossad's main missions," the Israeli daily Haaretz reported. A military commentator said he thought the Los Angeles Times report "made sense".

Israel's secret effort to acquire a bomb began in 1956 when France supplied a nuclear reactor and technical help. By 1968 Israel had a nuclear capability.

Until now, the country has relied on its Jericho II missiles, with a range of 930 miles, and American-supplied F-15 bombers, which can hit targets 2,000 miles away.

Now, even if a pre-emptive strike destroyed its land and air systems, Israel could hit back with nuclear weapons launched from its submarines.

• Israeli forces pulled back from the Rafah refugee camp yesterday after killing eight Palestinians in the heaviest raid in the Gaza Strip for six months. Two of the dead were boys aged eight and 12. Israel said its forces destroyed three tunnels used for smuggling weapons.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;$sessionid$RLM514XKLCTUHQFIQMFCFF4AVCBQYIV0?xml=/news/2003/10/13/wnuke13.xml&sSheet=/portal/2003/10/13/ixportal.html

CONGRESS OVERWHELMED BY IRANIAN-AMERICAN CALLERS ON STEP ACT

NATIONAL IRANIAN AMERICAN COUNCIL

www.niacouncil.org

Washington DC, October 10, 2003 – Congressional offices were overwhelmed by the number of calls placed by Iranian Americans on the STEP Act, a bill that would deport all Iranian non-immigrants if passed into law. The campaign was organized by the National Iranian American Council in order to ensure that the view points of the Iranian-American community were effectively conveyed to members of Congress.

Iranian-American nationwide placed their calls to Congress between 2.00-3.00pm on Wednesday October 8. Talking points and instructions were provided by NIAC and people were encouraged to primarily call their of House Representatives, but also the co-sponsors of the bill.

Several individuals reported that they had difficulties getting through to Congressman Renzi’s office (one of the co-sponsors of the bill) due to the high number of calls. Many NIAC members also reported that they had received assurances from their House representatives that they would vote against the STEP Act.

Iranian Americans’ forceful reaction is a strong indication of rising political awareness in the community. It is also a sign of the strengthening of the Iranian-American grass roots.

Many of the participants had never placed a call to their House Representatives before, and were shocked to see how easy and effective phone campaigns are. Through the phone campaign, the barriers of fear for contacting lawmakers have been torn down for many, and the vast majority of callers pledged to contact their representatives in Washington DC on a regular basis in the future.

In the mean time, the STEP Act campaign continues. NIAC is currently in the process of meeting with the members of the House Immigration Subcommittee to convey the concerns of the Iranian-American community.

http://www.niacouncil.org/pressreleases/press126.asp

Iran Air-strike Plan Seen as Bluff

October 13, 2003
The Washington Times
Abraham Rabinovich

JERUSALEM — Reports that Israel is preparing for pre-emptive air strikes on Iran's nuclear facilities and is now able to fire nuclear missiles from submarines were seen as reflecting deep anxiety in Israel for Tehran's nuclear program.

Israeli newspapers said officials appear to have leaked the reports in an attempt to focus the attention of the international community on the dangers of Iranian nuclear weapons development.

The German magazine Der Spiegel reported Saturday that Israel's Mossad intelligence agency had prepared detailed plans for attacking six nuclear facilities in Iran.

Any attack, according to the report, would be carried out by the Israeli air force, which in 1981 destroyed Iraq's Osirak nuclear facility just before it was to go on line. Der Spiegel quoted an Israeli pilot as saying such an attack would be "complex, yet manageable."

Simultaneously, the Los Angeles Times, quoting Israeli and American officials, reported that Israel has modified nuclear warheads to fit U.S.-made Harpoon missiles aboard its submarines. This would give Israel a second-strike capability that could respond even if the country's land facilities were obliterated.

Israeli officials denied the Los Angeles Times report yesterday, and nuclear experts expressed deep skepticism that it would even be possible to modify a Harpoon missile for a nuclear attack.

"Anyone with even the slightest understanding of missiles knows that the Harpoon can never be used to carry nuclear warheads," former Deputy Defense Minister Efraim Sneh told Army Radio.

"Not even [Israel´s] extraordinarily talented engineers and its sophisticated defense industries can transform the Harpoon into a missile capable of doing this. It's simply impossible."

Ted Hooton, editor of Jane's Naval Weapon Systems in London, told the Associated Press that the weight of a nuclear payload would put the Harpoon out of balance, limiting its range and accuracy.

The International Atomic Energy Agency has demanded that Tehran open its nuclear facilities to inspection by the end of the month and make them available for spot checks. Three of Iran's nuclear sites have never been inspected.

It was widely assumed in Israel that the stories were initiated by the Mossad as part of a campaign to keep the Iranian nuclear issue high on the international agenda.

"Heading off Iran's attempt to attain nuclear capability is one of the Mossad's main missions," wrote analyst Aluf Benn in the Ha'aretz newspaper yesterday, "and the foreign media is one of the most important instruments utilized in this effort."

Adding substance to this analysis was a report in the daily Ma'ariv yesterday that Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has ordered the Mossad to devote most of its efforts to uncovering information about Iran's nuclear program.

"Iran constitutes the biggest danger to Israel," Mr. Sharon said, according to the newspaper. "We are coordinated on this with the U.S. down to the last detail."

A former head of the Mossad, Shabtai Shavit, told Israel Radio that Iran is a threat because "it is ruled by clerics who act according to the word of God, not according to rational considerations." Iranian leaders have frequently called for Israel's destruction.

One of the principal reasons Israel acquired F-16 aircraft from the United States was that its range permits it to reach Iran, some 800 miles from Israel's borders. Iran has warned that Israel would pay a very heavy price for any attack.

http://www.washtimes.com/world/20031013-121441-2893r.htm

One-woman Machine Who Took on Iran's Clerics

October 11, 2003
The Guardian
Dan De Luce

Award will make her even more formidable.

She is small in stature but a force of nature in and out of the courtroom. Shirin Ebadi is a one-woman human-rights machine, inspiring students through her law faculty lectures, forcing judges to acknowledge contradictions in Iran's legal code and lobbying parliament to protect the rights of children born out of marriage.

She has already embarrassed the conservative clerics ruling Iran but yesterday's announcement from the Norwegian Nobel committee will make life more awkward for the defenders of the country's rigid laws. For Ms Ebadi and her colleagues the peace prize is like a shot in the arm for their efforts. "I think this prize gives me and Iranian people more courage to work for human rights and peace," she told the BBC in Paris.

What must have the hardliners worried is the following: Ms Ebadi has among the vast youth population, who see her as a courageous heroine standing up to a theocratic system. "I'm so happy," said Reza, a graduate student in Tehran. "I am proud to be an Iranian today."

With young women getting educated in unprecedented numbers, Ms Ebadi senses society is changing in ways that the conservative establishment does not understand. "Sixty-three per cent of entering university students are women. They see that the laws are not suitable for the conditions that are emerging," Ms Ebadi, who has two grown-up daughters, told the Guardian recently. "Because so many women are protesting against their conditions, things will have to improve."

Along with a several other lawyers, Ms Ebadi has launched a non-governmental organisation, the Centre for the Defenders of Human Rights, which will benefit from the Nobel prize of $1.3m (about £780,000). "She is one of the most active lawyers in Iran, working to promote human rights for women, children and all citizens," said her colleague, Mohammad Fayfzadeh. "She has performed brilliantly."

There was a time when the 56-year-old Ms Ebadi was fighting a lonely battle. After the 1979 revolution that toppled the regime of the shah, Ms Ebadi was told she would have to step down as Iran's first female judge. "The head of the court told me I could not work as a judge because I am a woman. He said it was forbidden by sharia law," she said.

Now prominent lawyers and MPs agree that women should serve as judges. "Many women are now working as legal advisers to judges. It's only a matter of time before we have female judges, " she said. "We have been fed so many things in the name of Islam and sharia law."

She uses sharia law, which forms the basis of Iran's laws, to argue that there is no legal foundation for discriminatory rules that give women an inferior status. She cites the writings of senior clerics and other areas of the law that have been freshly interpreted to adapt to modern circumstances.

In one case Ms Ebadi has fought against "blood money" provisions that put the value of a woman's life at half that of a man's in financial compensation. "I accept these cases to show what the consequences of inadequate, inappropriate laws can be," she said.

Through her lobbying in parliament and the courts, Ms Ebadi succeeded in her campaign to grant legal rights to children born outside of marriage though they are still denied the right to any inheritance. "I am still fighting to get that changed."

In a country where many dissidents have been discredited or forced underground, Ms Ebadi stands out for her single-minded commitment to human rights without ties to partisan politics or polemics.

She has spent time in solitary confinement and received a suspended sentence of 15 months for videotaping an interview with a former paramilitary. In the interview, the paramilitary described an at tempted an assassination attempt against a member of the cabinet and other methods of repression.

Ms Ebadi, who works late hours in her office alone, acknowledges the threat she is facing. "Defending human rights in Iran has unavoidable dangers," she said.

The most chilling event for Ms Ebadi was when a document leaked out from the intelligence ministry that included names of intellectuals who had been murdered in mysterious circumstances. It was a list of political enemies apparently singled out for liquidation.

"I'm like any other human being, I experienced fear. It comes to you like hunger, you don't have a choice. But I have learned how to overcome this feeling and not let it interfere with my work."

She wears the head scarf or hejab as required by Iran's dress code and though she has no affection for it, she sees it as a low priority among a long list of women's grievances. "There are much more im portant issues that need to be addressed."

Ms Ebadi credits the Islamic revolutions strict dress code and segregation of the sexes at university with opening the door to emancipation. Once the universities became a place where a father could send his daughter without worrying about "moral corruption", society began to change, she said. "There is a saying that modernity is born on the street. And when a woman steps out on the street, she cannot be a traditional woman anymore."

Extracts from the Nobel committee's citation

It is a pleasure for the Norwegian Nobel committee to award the Peace prize to a woman who is part of the Muslim world, and of whom that world can be proud.

As a lawyer, judge, lecturer, writer and activist, she has spoken out clearly and strongly in her country, Iran, and far beyond its borders. She has stood up as a sound professional, a courageous person, and has never heeded the threats to her own safety. In an era of violence, she has consistently supported nonviolence. It is fundamental to her view that the supreme political power in a community must be built on democratic elections.

We hope that the people of Iran will feel joyous that for the first time in history one of their citizens has been awarded the Nobel Peace prize, and we hope the prize will be an inspiration for all those who struggle for human rights and democracy in her country, in the Muslim world, and in all countries where the fight for human rights needs support.

http://education.guardian.co.uk/higher/worldwide/story/0,9959,1061848,00.html

Khatami's Silence Signals Official Anger over Ebadi

October 13, 2003
AFP
IranMania

TEHRAN -- Iran's reformist President Mohammad Khatami had yet to react to the Nobel Peace Prize win of human rights lawyer Shirin Ebadi, with his silence seen as a reflection of deep anger among his hardline superiors and his own decreasing influence.

While Khatami's embattled government has congratulated Ebadi for her win -- albeit after some initial confusion on how to digest the news -- they have shown extreme caution in their references to a figure loathed by many powerful conservatives.

In the past, it would have been hard to see Khatami not speak on such a prestigious prize win for an Iranian Muslim woman, who like him is a moderate espousing values such as human rights and dialogue.

Paying lip service to such issues, as well as championing his pet topic of "dialogue among civilisations", helped the mild-mannered cleric sweep to power in 1997 and again in 2001 on a wave of women's and youth support.

Ebadi has even stated that she was part of the wave of support behind Khatami that saw him win a landslide in 1997.

But increasingly, Khatami appears to be torn between his deep ties to Iran's complex power structure, and the frustration of many of his supporters who see him as failing to deliver his promise of "Islamic democracy".

His is a delicate path under the eye of conservatives -- who wield more power than the president and his supporters in parliament through their control of the judiciary, legislative oversight bodies and security forces.

That much has been illustrated by his delayed responses or prolonged silence on other key questions in recent months, such as anti-regime protests, widespread arrests of dissidents, students or journalists and an International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) ultimatum over Iran's suspect nuclear programme.

Prominent hardliners, who take their cue from supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, have been quick to suggest the Nobel prize win was some kind of "conspiracy" -- in other words yet another sign of UN-backed international pressure on the country.

"Khatami's hands are tied," one analyst explained.

Furthermore, analysts here have pointed to Ebadi's appearance in Paris with exiled Iranian dissidents, her embracing by other men wishing to congratulate her as well as her decision not to wear the compulsory headscarf.

And on top of that, she was quick to demand the freeing of all political prisoners back home.

"The conservatives would have certainly seen this and must be furious," one diplomat said. "So it leaves Khatami in a bit of an embarrassing situation, and obviously it seems he'll wait for the fuss to die down before he says something."

Quoted by the official news agency IRNA, Ebadi has also reflected widespread impatience with Khatami and the pace of his reforms.

"After the election of Mr. Khatami as Iran's president, a lot of reforms were done on women's status, but these reforms are not enough. Khatami's electoral triumph would not have been possible without the participation of women, so therefore we are expecting that the president does more," she said.

Khatami and his reform movement are facing what many analysts and observers see as a critical juncture -- their bid to reform Iran has led to some changes, but not the promised fundamental shake-up of the nearly 25-year-old clerical regime.

A bid by parliament to give greater powers to the president and strip conservative oversight bodies of their right to vet electoral candidates -- seen as a last-ditch reform bid -- appears to have failed.

The mandate of the reformist-controlled Majlis runs out early next year, and parliamentary elections are scheduled for February 20, 2004. Even the president, whose second and final term in office ends in 2005, has admitted that the run-up to the vote is "very sensitive historical juncture".

Many analysts, however, have already written the president off.

http://www.iranmania.com/News/ArticleView/Default.asp?NewsCode=18636&NewsKind=Current%20Affairs

"UK Questions Iranians Filming Jewish Centers"

October 12, 2003
AFP
IranMania

WASHINGTON -- British police recently questioned a group of Iranian tourists after they were seen covertly shooting video film of Jewish community buildings in London, Newsweek magazine reported.

Newsweek said in its Monday's edition that the Iranian "tourists" were detained and questioned by British police in recent weeks, but the magazine did not identify which Jewish buildings had been filmed and provided few other details.

The report said British police have warned the country's Jewish community of a threat of imminent terrorist attacks.

The British warning comes as some US Department of State officials mull issuing an official warning to the US travellers to Britain, according to the magazine.

"US officials say no comparable intelligence has recently surfaced about threats to Jewish targets in America," Newsweek said.

"British security officers say that while they can't predict specific attacks, urgent measures are needed to protect potential targets such as synagogues and community centers," the report said.

It added that the warning to British Jewish centers comes as some US officials say recent intelligence indicates backsliding in official Iranian attitudes toward Islamic terrorism and al-Qaeda.

British police have been on a heightened anti-terrorist alert since the September 11, 2001, attacks against New York and Washington.

London has been America's chief ally in the White House's self-professed war on terror, including supporting the US-led war in Iraq.

The Newsweek report comes after British police arrested a Pakistani man under anti-terrorism laws last week amid fears of a plot to carry out a bombing in London, according to the Daily Mirror newspaper.

The paper quoted a senior source in London's Scotland Yard police department as saying: "We made the arrest because of fears that a plot by al-Qaeda to launch a terrorist attack in Britain was reaching the advanced planning stage. We think a bombing was being planned to take place in London."

http://www.iranmania.com/News/ArticleView/Default.asp?NewsCode=18640&NewsKind=Current%20Affairs

Mullahs on the Run

October 13, 2003
The Washington Times
Editorials/Op-Ed

With an Oct. 31 deadline looming for Iran to come clean about its nuclear weapons program, the regime in Tehran continues to stonewall in providing information to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). On Tuesday, Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, denounced international pressure against the country's nuclear program. Also, Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi, widely depicted as a moderate in the Western press, waxed defiant on the subject, declaring: "We will not allow anyone to deprive us of our legitimate right to use nuclear technology, particularly enrichment for providing fuel for [civilian] nuclear plants."

This argument is a difficult one to take seriously. Given the reality that Iran is awash in oil and gas, it is virtually impossible to argue with a straight face that Iran's nuclear program is for peaceful purposes. Over the past few months, there have been mounting reports of heightened military cooperation between Iran and a fellow member of the ''axis of evil" pointed to by President Bush: North Korea. In June, the Japanese newspaper Sankei reported that Iranian nuclear experts made repeated visits to North Korea in the spring, possibly to learn from the Stalinist regime how to be more successful in stonewalling IAEA inspectors. In August, the Los Angeles Times reported that North Korean scientists were recently seen entering Iranian nuclear facilities, and were helping Tehran test a nuclear warhead.

IAEA officials have also found traces of weapons-grade uranium at Iran's Natanz nuclear faciliity. IAEA Director-General Mohammed ElBaradei said in August that Iran had been shopping for nuclear components on the black market and appeared to suggest that Iran was running a secret weapons program. On Sept. 12, the IAEA gave Iran until Oct. 31 to demonstrate that it was not developing nuclear weapons under cover of its so-called civilian nuclear program.

Clearly, Iran's post-Sept. 12 behavior has done little to alleviate the concerns of the international community. On Friday, Mr. ElBaradei said bluntly that he is still waiting for Tehran to provide satisfactory information about its nuclear program. He said the information provided to date remained inadequate. On Saturday, the IAEA ratcheted up the pressure a bit more, stating that "Time is indeed running out" for Iran, and that it shouldn't take "more than a week or two" for the regime to provide "full and complete information on their nuclear program."

We suspect that, as the noose tightens around its neck, the regime will do what Undersecretary of State John Bolton predicted on Thursday: show just enough cooperation to get past the Oct. 31 deadline without providing much in the way of useful information "to conceal as much as they can, to delay, to fight for time, and to avoid having the issue referred to the Security Council."

The mullahs' growing isolation was further accentuated by the announcement on Friday that Shirin Ebadi, an Iranian dissident who had been jailed by the Iranian regime, became the first Muslim woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize. The Nobel commitee praised her advocacy of equal rights for the Baha'i community, which has been harshly persecuted by the Iranian government. Mrs. Ebadi's well-deserved award, which was welcomed by President Bush, is just the latest sign that political troubles of every sort are mounting for the tyrannical regime in Tehran.

http://www.washtimes.com/op-ed/20031013-121446-6797r.htm

Prize Message

October 13, 2003
Newsday
Newsday.com

With this year's selection, the Nobel Peace Prize Committee has sent a ringing message of support for democracy advocates in Iran and an implicit rebuke to the hard-line clerics ruling its hide-bound theocracy.

The Iranian human rights activist and feminist lawyer Shirin Ebadi - the first Muslim woman and first Iranian to receive the award - is amply deserving of the honor on her own merits. Ebadi, 56, is a courageous and tireless promoter of democracy and human rights in a country where neither has much official support. She has been imprisoned for her outspokenness and her life has been threatened several times for her defense of women's and children's rights.

Ebadi became Iran's first woman judge in 1974, but Islamic clerics stripped her of that post five years later in the Islamic Revolution, decreeing that women could not preside over courts under Koranic law. Ebadi has fought against the mullahs' rigid application of sharia, Islamic law, ever since. She has argued fiercely and publicly there is nothing in Islam or the Koran that restricts women's rights or mandates stoning for adultery, only the patriarchal interpretation of Islamic law.

After attending a Berlin conference on Iranian democratic reforms in 2000, she was jailed for several weeks for slandering the ruling clerics and was banned from practicing law.

Ebadi's prize has been hailed justifiably across the globe as a signal victory for human rights. Indeed, the Nobel committee made it clear that one reason it chose Ebadi was because of its resolve to speed the process of instituting human rights and democracy in nations that resist them.

The peace prize is inherently political and often used to promote outcomes that do not always pan out. After all, the award granted to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat after the Oslo accords was far more an encouragement for the Mideast peace process to succeed than a recognition of merit. The wish, of course, turned out to be futile and Arafat's peace prize is now nothing more than a sad piece of parchment.

For all that, the peace prize remains a potent symbol of the highest human aspirations. The Nobel committee chose well in rewarding Ebadi and putting Iran on the spot. It's the right time, the right woman, the right place.

http://www.newsday.com/news/opinion/ny-vpnob133493425oct13,0,2350021.story?coll=ny-editorials-headlines

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