Shirin Ebadi | Iranian Government | Oxford Union

Shirin Ebadi gives her address about the political situation in Iran to the Oxford Union Society.

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Through speaking out against the Iranian government outside of Iran, Shirin's Husband and Sister were both arrested in hopes that she would keep silent. She did not remain silent and they have since been released on bail but their passports have been confiscated so they are essentially hostages within their own country. All of her properties have been confiscated and sold at auction and she has received death threats from the government.

The difficulties people have with the regime can be categorised into 3 groups.

1st Issue

The people are against the enrichment of uranium; the continuation of this enrichment has brought a lot of sanctions on the country. The people of Iran have been severely impoverished.

Corruption has lead to some people making huge profit. They claim this is being used for peaceful purposes. The first electricity producing nuclear power station started last year. This is damaging to the environment but Iran has massive potential for solar energy production but not a single dollar has been spent on it.

What is the government going to do with the nuclear waste, peaceful purposes is not a valid point. Countries like Germany and South Africa are dismantling their Nuclear power plants, while countries are destructing their nuclear power stations Iran is constructing; this is the wrong policy and its bringing sanctions against Iran.

2nd Issue

Iran's Foreign Policy, the Iranian regime has political ambitions and it interferes with other countries of the world. This is an effort to increase its influence in Middle Eastern countries like Syria. The Assad family have ruled Syria for 40 years since Hafez al-Assad came into power by military coo and passed presidency onto his son. Both were corrupted despots. The people have protested and been targeted by helicopters and missiles killing over 100,000 of their own people. Iran have sent in military forces making Syrian people angry leading them to capture Iranian officers. The people have called for Iran to withdraw from Syria. This is just one example of Iranian foreign policy.

Shirin goes on to give other examples of Iran's wrong foreign policies and say that it is these that have lead to the countries isolation with foreign invested at nearly 0%.

3rd Issue

The violation of human rights. In Iran the law is a man can have 4 wives and the life of a woman is valued at half the life of a man. This means if a man and a woman are in a fatal car accident then the man's family gets twice as much compensation as the woman's family. Also in a court of law a man's testimony is worth twice as much as a woman's. A married woman cannot leave the country without permission from her husband. These laws objectify women. There are also religious and faith based laws. There are 300,000 believers in the Bahá'í faith living in Iran and they have absolutely no rights. They haven't even been permitted to attend university. The Bahá'í people set up an unofficial university to make sure their children were getting educated, however the Iranian government shut down that university and arrested all the teachers and sent them to prison. They do not have any governmental or civil rights. The religious discrimination goes far beyond this. The punishment for pre-marital sex for Muslims is 100 lashes, for non-Muslims the punishment is death.

Out of 179 countries Iran comes 174th for freedom of expression. Iran has the highest number of journalists in prison and government forces frequently attack newspaper offices.

Islam has many different interpretations and the Iranian government are abusing Islam and using it to justify their despotism. Getting rid of a dictator doesn't mean that democracy will come; it needs daily input from the citizens to survive. In conclusion we all must tend the flower of democracy.

Filmed on Wednesday 13th February 2013

ABOUT SHIRIN EBADI:

An Iranian lawyer and former judge, Shirin Ebadi was the first muslim woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize. She was presented with the award in 2003 for her work promoting democracy and human rights, particularly for women and children. She is an outspoken critic of the Iranian government, and as a lawyer she has defended political prisoners and the families of murdered protesters.

ABOUT THE OXFORD UNION SOCIETY:

The Union is the world's most prestigious debating society, with an unparalleled reputation for bringing international guests and speakers to Oxford. It has been established for 189 years, aiming to promote debate and discussion not just in Oxford University, but across the globe.