english.aljazeera.net
Ebadi says receiving death
threats is nothing new to her
Shrugging off criticism, Nobel Peace Prize winner Shirin Ebadi is to cast off her headscarf when she goes to Oslo this week to formally receive her award.
....
"I want Iranian women to be free to wear or not wear the hijab," she said of the Islamic dress code enforced in the republic since the 1979 revolution and a symbol seized upon by many feminist activists.
...
Death threats
Coupled with that, however, are death threats. But these were shrugged off as part and parcel of campaigning on issues in opposition to powerful hardliners.
"These are nothing new. I've been receiving threats for 10 years now - telephone calls, letters. I've turned down offers of bodyguards, although when I go somewhere where there is not many people, I do inform the interior ministry," she explained.
Ebadi also shrugged off the disappointment of those in the Islamic republic hoping she would be taking on a more public role in her opposition to the conservative figures that pull many of the strings in Iran and have frustrated the reform efforts of President Muhammad
Khatami.
....
Referendum
"I tell people that they have to fight for their rights themselves, and that I will be among those who defend them. I believe in the parliamentary struggle, and the constitution has a method for reform - a referendum."
"The human rights situation has been getting worse over the past two years, even though it is better than it was 20 years ago..."
Reforms, she argued, "have to be carried out peacefully" - even though to many people the Iranian parliament has failed to deliver the changes that voters mandated it to deliver in 2000.
"People have not fought like they should have. They tired too quickly," she said of the current Majlis, which comes up for re-election on 20 February 2004.
But she did warn against a boycott, or a low turnout such as during municipal elections in February this year that saw conservatives win:
"When people leave the arena, the conservatives or the United States profit. We don't want conservatives or a military occupation
Ebadi says receiving death
threats is nothing new to her
Shrugging off criticism, Nobel Peace Prize winner Shirin Ebadi is to cast off her headscarf when she goes to Oslo this week to formally receive her award.
....
"I want Iranian women to be free to wear or not wear the hijab," she said of the Islamic dress code enforced in the republic since the 1979 revolution and a symbol seized upon by many feminist activists.
...
Death threats
Coupled with that, however, are death threats. But these were shrugged off as part and parcel of campaigning on issues in opposition to powerful hardliners.
"These are nothing new. I've been receiving threats for 10 years now - telephone calls, letters. I've turned down offers of bodyguards, although when I go somewhere where there is not many people, I do inform the interior ministry," she explained.
Ebadi also shrugged off the disappointment of those in the Islamic republic hoping she would be taking on a more public role in her opposition to the conservative figures that pull many of the strings in Iran and have frustrated the reform efforts of President Muhammad
Khatami.
....
Referendum
"I tell people that they have to fight for their rights themselves, and that I will be among those who defend them. I believe in the parliamentary struggle, and the constitution has a method for reform - a referendum."
"The human rights situation has been getting worse over the past two years, even though it is better than it was 20 years ago..."
Reforms, she argued, "have to be carried out peacefully" - even though to many people the Iranian parliament has failed to deliver the changes that voters mandated it to deliver in 2000.
"People have not fought like they should have. They tired too quickly," she said of the current Majlis, which comes up for re-election on 20 February 2004.
But she did warn against a boycott, or a low turnout such as during municipal elections in February this year that saw conservatives win:
"When people leave the arena, the conservatives or the United States profit. We don't want conservatives or a military occupation
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