Nobel winner says feminism can help Iran (would better promote democracy than military force)

Boston.com ^ | 9/15/06 | Erin Gartner

[Libloather]

Nobel winner says feminism can help Iran
By Erin Gartner, Associated Press Writer
September 15, 2006

RALEIGH, N.C. --Shirin Ebadi, the Iranian human rights activist who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2003, said supporting feminist movements in the Islamic world would better promote democracy than military force.

"Instead of bringing democracy with cluster bombs, we should support women fighting for democracy," Shirin Ebadi said through an interpreter Thursday during a speech at Meredith College, a women's university in Raleigh.

A lawyer, former judge and writer in Iran, Ebadi spoke in Farsi to about 1,000 people about fighting for human rights in Iran and elsewhere in the world.

She said the feminist movement has been successful in changing some custody laws in Iran, but that women need more victories. Iranian women hold high-ranking social and political positions yet the court testimony of one man is equal to testimony given by two women, she said.

"Although they (feminists) were always told these laws were the laws of Islam and could not change, they have been able to change laws," she said.

Ebadi heads the Center for Protecting Human Rights, a group formed by six prominent lawyers that was banned by Iran's hard-line government last month. The government said the group did not have a proper permit.

Ebadi became one of Iran's first female judges after graduating with a law degree from the University of Tehran in 1969. Ten years later, during the Islamic Revolution, she said she was demoted to an administrative secretary when the country's conservative leaders insisted that Islam forbade judgment by women.

In 2003, she became the first Iranian and first Muslim woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize.

[Libloather]

Norway has said it was concerned by Iran 's closure of a human rights centre led by 2003 Nobel Peace laureate Shirin Ebadi, seen here in Tehran in July 2006, on the grounds that it had failed to secure official authorization.(AFP/File/Hassan Ammar)

The Dalai Lama addresses a news conference at the University of Denver on Friday, Sept. 15, 2006. Listening at left is Shirin Ebadi a Nobel Laureate from Iran. Ten Nobel Peace Prize Laureates and 3,000 students from around the world are scheduled to particpated in the PeaceJam conference that is scheduled to run through Sunday. (AP Photo/Ed Andrieski)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Queer Eye for the Straight Guy is an hour-long American television series that premiered on the Bravo cable television network on July 15, 2003, and promptly became both a surprise hit (at least by the standards of cable TV) and one of the most talked-about television programs of 2003. The show's name was changed to simply Queer Eye at the beginning of its third season, to reflect the show's change in direction, from making over only straight men, to including women and gay people too.

[Izzy Dunne]

OK, so we send planeloads of American feminists to Teheran - where do I donate?

[darkwing104]

Great idea! The Battle of the America Haters!

Send the radical Feminists to Iran and watch the Jihadis goes totally insane trying to kill them off!

It will more enjoyable than Survivor!

[Arm_Bears]

Hmmm. . .

Iranian male trouble-makers castrated by militant feminists.

What's not to like?

[the final gentleman]

"OK, so we send planeloads of American feminists to Teheran - where do I donate?" - Izzy Dunne
__________________________________________________________

What he said.

[Jaysun]

That's hilarious. The enemy of Democracy being used to promote Democracy.

[Alia]

RALEIGH, N.C. --Shirin Ebadi, the Iranian human rights activist who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2003, said supporting feminist movements in the Islamic world would better promote democracy than military force.

Sure, they'll promote abortion upon those families who actually wish to learn anything different from what the Mullah's demand. We've seen this boring script already here in the US. And the feminist Iranian's can abort their children and become powerful "career" new senators in the free Iran.. uh-=huh.

If Iran doesn't come to its senses soon, yes. WE SHOULD EXPORT feminism. Look at all the good its done for the US of A.

[Roy Tucker]

With or without parachutes? I'm not paying for parachutes.

[expatpat]

That headline reminds me of the old fable about belling the cat. A good idea, but how do the mice get the bell on the cat in the first place.

[expatpat]

They should be dropped like leaflets are dropped, but anti-radar chaff might be a better analogy.

[Billthedrill]

The difficulty with social reformers in a police state is that the state tends to shoot them. Feminism is a luxury of a free country, one freed and kept free by the efforts of others for which the feminists are characteristically ungrateful.

[sefarkas]

Can we just beam a few free channels of 24x7 porno to all those little roof top dishes in Tehran until they surrender? Every month we add another channel until the general strike really takes hold.

[DH]

OK, so we send planeloads of American feminists to Teheran - where do I donate?

You have to remember, the feminists cannot be very effective unless you rotate them every 28 days.

[Niuhuru]

"one freed and kept free by the efforts of others for which the feminists are characteristically ungrateful."

They're a group of people always wanting more until there is a backlash.