Obama Deserves the Nobel Prize Just for Ordering Guantanamo Closed

With decades of struggle for human rights behind her and having recently arrived in Madrid to hold a conference organized by the General Council of Spanish Advocates, Shirin Ebadi spoke with ABC on the presently convulsed Iran.

ABC: Your country is immersed in revolts against President Mahmud Ahmadineyad. How is the situation evolving?

Ebadi: The protests are escalating and have spread to smaller cities. In addition, there is more activism each day and more workers' strikes in the factories; the people are no longer afraid. They know that if they go out into the street they can end up in prison, and yet they continue to do so. The government is losing popular support every day. Also, there are divisions developing within the fundamentalist groups.

ABC: Is there a way out?

Ebadi: The only way out is to hold elections with observers from the United Nations. Those elections have to be completely free and political prisoners must be set free.

ABC: You and your family are suffering from the repression personally. Do you feel more persecuted than ever?

Ebadi: I have no political authority, I do not side with any party, and I care little for the president or the government. But being a human rights activist, I cannot be indifferent. Also, I have given information to other organizations about the human rights situation in my country; this spurred the anger of the Iranian government. Months before the elections the government closed the nongovernmental organization of human rights that I founded and attacked my law office.

ABC: The regime has also acted against your sister and your husband.

Ebadi: What they are doing is harassing them so they will convince me to stop what I'm doing. My husband has been in prison and they held my sister hostage, even though neither of them are activists. My husband is an engineer and my sister is a dentist.

ABC: You're in favor of neither economic sanctions nor military interventions in Iran. Maybe because you think the solution lies within.

Ebadi: Those kinds of measures can only worsen the situation and give the government an excuse to radicalize. Change must come from within Iranian society. The only thing we ask of the international community is not to side with the government during this repression and the most important thing is that the world knows what is happening in Iran.

ABC: Barack Obama is a fellow Nobel Peace Prize winner. Do you think he deserves the award after one year of presidency?

Ebadi: Without a doubt his actions are much better than those of Bush. There is no way a president can change everything that needs to be changed within one year, but he has taken some important first steps. We must not forget that in his first day in office he ordered the closing of Guantanamo, or that he declared military intervention in Iraq an error. Just for this I see him as deserving of the prize.

ABC: Islam and Democracy? (The interviewer is implying incompatibility.)

Ebadi: Islam can be interpreted as being compatible with human rights, and I reject whoever uses religion as an excuse for violence.

ABC: What do you think of the Alliance of Civilizations as promoted by Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero?

Ebadi: It is a good project. Psychology does tell us that when we do not know one another we fear and hate one another. The solution is in dialogue but what is important is that the interchange must happen in all circles: among journalists, athletes, clergy and authors.

ABC: Do you think it's appropriate that certain Western sects are intent on prohibiting the veil?

Ebadi: I do not wear the veil. In Islamic countries such as Iran women are obligated to wear the headscarf and the women do not want to. And in countries such as France and Germany where they forced the women to take them off, the women did not want to. I do not understand why they don't just let the women do what they want. I reject all decisions made with fanaticism or with prejudice.