Ebadi keeps suspense over headscarf in Paris
December 02, 2003
IranMania
TEHRAN, Dec 2, (AFP) -- Iran's Nobel Peace prize winner refused to say Tuesday if she would wear the Islamic headscarf which is mandatory in her home country when she receives her award on December 10 in Oslo.
"You will see on that day," the human rights lawyer said at a press conference in answer to a journalist's question. Ebadi shocked conservative Iranians by appearing bareheaded in front of television cameras in Paris after the announcement of her award on October 10.
Since her return to Iran, Ebadi has put her veil back on, saying that she is showing her respect for the laws of her country. She told journalists Tuesday, "I have not changed since the Nobel Prize, but the prize has given me more courage to continue the struggle."
Ebadi has denied any political ambition and rejected the status of standard-bearer that many Iranians would like to see her assume. "I reject hero-worship. Some people wait for heroes to express their wishes. This is a mistake.
People have to struggle for themselves ... because freedom and democracy don't come on a silver platter." She declined to voice support any candidate in the general elections on February 20, 2004, which will see supporters of reformist President Mohammad Khatami defend their majority in parliament against stiff odds.
But she expressed the hope that a bill preventing a conservative watchdog body from vetting candidates would be approved, "to guarantee people's freedom to vote for their choice."
The Guardians Council, which has rejected hundreds of pro-reform candidates in the past on only the vaguest of grounds, has also used its powers to throw out the new bill, which now has to go to arbitration.
Ebadi also defended women's right to run for president in 2005, giving the constitution a liberal reading contested by conservatives. She welcomed a recent modification in the law on custody of children. "The old law, which was more than 70 years old, gave custody to the father, except for boys younger than two and girls younger than seven," she said.
From then on, custody automatically reverted to the children's father. Iran's arbitration body, the Expediency Council, unusually overruled the Guardians Council's rejection of the change allowing divorced mothers to keep custody of both their sons and daughters until they reach seven, state media said Saturday.
Ebadi, founder of a group of lawyers and a children's defence organization, also announced that she has created an association for the clearing of old war zones still infested with mines in Iran.
http://www.iranmania.com/News/ArticleView/Default.asp?NewsCode=20252&NewsKind=Current%20Affairs If she wears it she's a scumbag traitor just like Khatami.
We'll see.