What Shirin Ebadi’s Nobel Means to Progressive Muslims
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By Omid Safi
Talk to your favorite Muslims today, and you might see them with heads raised a little bit higher, a smile that you have not seen in a while, a joy that has been missing since 9/11. Even the Muslims who usually walk in solemn dignity might have an extra bounce to their step, skipping every now and then, yes, even giddiness.
What is the cause of this newfound joy?
For the first time, a Muslim woman has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. The committee has recognized the Iranian activist Shirin Ebadi by rewarding her with the 2003 Nobel Peace Prize. Who is Ebadi? She is a feminist and human rights activist, who stated: “We’ve realized that defending human rights starts with recognizing women’s rights.” She is an activist and a judge, a tireless campaigner on behalf of women’s rights, a champion of the rights of children, and an advocate of democratic reform.
This is huge. Is there a good way of talking about earthquakes and aftershocks?
That might give you a sense of the impact this award will have on the global Muslim community. It is going to inspire the silent majority of Muslims worldwide who simply want to live lives of quiet dignity. Where there are oppressive forces from both inside Muslim society and outside of it now we have a paragon of resistance to look up to. And how I relish the fact that this Muslim recipient is a woman, a strong mother of two children, a judge, and an activist. How many stereotypes about being a Muslim and a woman, an Iranian and a woman, she shatters through the very grace of her being!
The conversations about Islam and America since 9/11 have been dominated almost totally by adult, middle-aged, largely upper-class males: George Bush and his-perpetually-linked-evil-twin Usama Bin Laden, Blair, Wolfowitz, Rumsfeld, Cheney, Saddam Hossein, Ayman Zawahiri, Arafat, etc. Crashing this party of bad ole boys is a (darn smart) woman who not only campaigns for women’s rights, she also reminds us all of children and their human rights. Let us all remember that children too have the right to live, the right not be blown up by either suicide bombs or bombs from American planes, the right to school, to loving homes, to be hugged by their parents, to vaccines, to food, to love.
So who is Ebadi?
She is a first rank intellectual and writer. She teaches law at the University of Tehran. Her writings on human rights are quite significant, and span a number of topics. One of her works is available in English: History and Documentation of Human Rights in Iran (New York: Bibliotheca Persica Press, 2000). The rest of her works, like those of most Iranian reformers, are unknown even to most Western experts. Here are a few more of her works:
- Tradition and Reform in Iranian Rights (1996)
- The Rights of the Child: A Study on Legal Aspects of Children’s Rights in Iran (1992)
She has also written on medical ethics and rights, architectural contracts, and copyrights regulations in Iran.
However, her real significance is not as an ivory-tower intellectual, but as an activist. She was a judge under the Shah’s regime in Iran, but rose to prominence as the first female judge under the new Islamic regime. As was the case under the civil rights movement in the United States, the nascent reform movement in Iran is somewhat fragmented. There are pro-democracy movements, women’s right movements, freedom of press movements, etc. Ebadi combines in one person the connectedness of all these endeavors. She sees clearly that unless justice is guaranteed for everyone, it is vouchsafed for no one. Justice remains fundamentally indivisible, even as God remains indivisible in a monotheistic world of Islam. Ebadi speaks out on behalf of many marginalized groups in Iranian society such as women, political prisoners, journalists, and that most neglected treasure of all human societies, children.
Progressive Muslims, of whom Ebadi is surely one, have always emphasized that it is not sufficient to come up with a better and more luminous theology of Islam, but that it is imperative for us to work on transforming the very societies around us. The measure of change is not by coming up with better Islamic thought, but rather by a simultaneous and linked praxis of transforming the society along the lines of human rights, freedom, pluralism, and justice. [See Progressive Muslims: On Justice, Gender, and Pluralism.] In implementing her intellectual vision in the concrete social and religious reform of Iranian society, Ebadi exemplifies the best aspect of being a progressive Muslim.
Her opposition to the hardliners in Iran has earned her a stay at the infamous Evin prison in Northern Tehran. Of that experience of solitary confinement she wrote: “Angrily I am trying to write on the cement wall with the bottom of my spoon that we are born to suffer because we are born in the Third World. Time and place are imposed upon us. So let’s be patient as there is no other choice.”
There is something remarkably courageous and honest about this strong woman acknowledging her own fears in face of the cruel all-male clerical regime. She states: “Any person who pursues human rights in Iran must live with fear from birth to death, but I have learned to overcome my fear. She wrote in the Iranian magazine Today’s Message (Payam Emrooz): “I hate myself for being so weak. I try not to complain. I would just press my teeth against each other and would flex my fingers hard. My nails have turned blue because of the intensity of the pressure, but never would I groan.”
Ebadi is right. It is not about not being afraid. It is staring fear in the face, admitting one’s mortality and weakness, and yet refusing to give in. The jihad of the spirit starts when we stand up to the tyranny of fear—indeed the terrorism of oppressive regimes everywhere—and pursue a steadfast process of resistance to the powers that be. Long live Edward Said’s spirit, may God be pleased with him: our task is to “speak truth to the powers.” This is what Ebadi has done and continues to do, and this is the model for not just Iranians, but all Muslims, indeed all human beings, to follow.
Ebadi correctly realizes that the reward is not just a recognition of her work, but that of all reformers in Iran and in the Muslim world as a whole. She herself said in Paris today: “This prize doesn’t belong to me only. It belongs to all people who work for human rights and democracy in Iran.” Other reformers in Iran have echoed this, including her husband, Javad Tavassolian: “The reform movement is reborn.”
How much of an impact has this award already had in Iran? The top six news items on this day in Iran—on the official government Iranian News Agency, nonetheless—were about Ebadi:
- Guidance minister congratulates Ebadi on her Nobel Peace award
- Government spokesman delighted to hear Ebadi`s success
- Asefi: Ebadi`s Nobel Peace Prize source of pleasure
- Veep: Award of Nobel Peace Prize, not political motivated
- Deputy FM: Ebadi`s award, token of dynamism of Iranian women
- Iranian lawyer wins 2003 Nobel Peace Prize
Moans and Groans About the Award
Clearly not everyone is rejoicing about this news.You can hear sounds of moaning and groaning come from two oppressive corners. The first is the tyrannical regime of hardliner clerics in Iran, who now have to deal with a suddenly popular global celebrity. Imprisoning her, and her millions of fellow reformers, just got more untenable. The reform movement which has been led by students and women in large parts now has a second champion to look to aside from President Khatami. And the hardliners realize that the Iranian reformers have friends and allies, well-wishers and supporters, all over this world.
The second groan—make no mistake about this—comes from the White House. Do not for a minute believe their hollow congratulatory remarks. The Bush regime has not conceived of any process of dealing with the reform movement in Iran apart from toppling the regime. Sandwiched literally between Iraq and Afghanistan, Iran is clearly first or second on the list of “NEXT’ wars (along with Syria). If the occupation in Iraq was not going so remarkably badly, US soldiers might already be in Iran. Having a figure like Ebadi makes it harder for the Bush regime to continue their demonizing of Iranians. Remember that silly hollow insulting phrase “Axis of Evil?” Now the Bush-ites have to acknowledge the fact that there is a viable struggle for the very soul of Islam going on inside Iran, and the best thing that America can do is to STAY THE HELL OUT. Leave Iranians alone. We will sort it out for ourselves.
What do we as Iranians and Muslims ask of the American government? Don’t support tyrannical regimes, and don’t tell Iranians what kind of Islam we should have. We are doing just fine, moving towards a truly remarkable transformation of the social order in Iran.
For those in the Bush regime and outside who may still think of Iran in 1979 hostage-taking terms, here is a newsflash: it is quite possible that Iran may very well provide the most vital example of a pluralistic, democratic, human rights oriented interpretation and practice of Islam. Women like Ebadi are heading that effort, as is the embattled President of Iran, Khatami. If that transformation succeeds, it could provide the model for the rest of the Muslim world that the Iranian revolution of 1979 never did.
This award is also a reminder of the power of the global community to foster peace and transformation. It is a defiant rejection of unilateralism. It is a statement of those around the world who want Muslim reformers to know that they are supported, not bombed, in their endeavors. It is undoubtedly also a vital step for the Nobel Committee itself. It could have taken the easy path and given the award to the Pope for a sort of life-time recognition award. The Pope, I believe, will have his just reward in Heaven. It is the Muslim reformers around the world who need the support here on Earth, right now. In taking this controversial step, I propose, the Nobel committee has also again established itself as a significant moral force in our small planet.
This is a day to celebrate, for both Muslims and the supporters of the idea of one humanity committed to global peace and justice. Between those two, I do believe that we are in the majority! This award is an opportunity for us, the silent majority of this world to come together and work towards a day where the well-being and dignity of all of us comes not at the expense of one another, but through realizing the full humanity of all of us.
Omid Safi is assistant professor of Islamic Studies at Colgate University and editor of Progressive Muslims: On Justice, Gender, and Pluralism.
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