Dear Editor,
This
Wednesday, Correction… THURSDAY, May 3, Nobel Laureate Shirin Ebadi will address a public audience at University of the Pacific in Stockton, CA. Her address, “Iran Awakening: A Story of Revolution and Hope,” is one of many events Pacific will host this year aimed at gaining a better understanding of the Middle East. A worldwide leader in human, children’s and women’s rights, Ms. Ebadi’s advocacy work has landed her in prison on numerous occasions and brought attention to human rights abuses in her home country of Iran.I came across several of the Free Press’s posts on related subjects and found them to be thoughtful, well-informed, and well-written. I’d like to invite you to participate in the podcast portion of Ms. Edbadi’s speech: during the speech, she’ll be accepting questions from the press submitted by email, and if I could encourage you to pass one along as well, I’d like to hear your contributions to the discussion.
The address for submitted questions is DeanSis@pacific.edu, and the podcast will air live at rtsp://etsxserve.pacific.edu/ebadi.sdp at 7 PM Wednesday. Show up early, or subscribe at the link above beginning Tuesday. Only the first 100 subscribers will be able to catch the address live.
Editor’s Comments
Our own Cliverton asked us to post the above. He is traveling right now or he would have done it himself.
I have been a big fan of Shirin Ebadi, but my enthusiasm has diminished considerably since this winner of the Nobel Peace Prize came out in favour of Iran entering the nuclear weapons club!
Mrs. Ebadi’s position on Iran going nuclear is so at odds with her Nobel Prize that one has to wonder what happened to her.
Perhaps we will find out when we listen to her talk.
9 Comments
May 1, 2007 at 10:27 am
Hmmm. Iran ‘revolutionising’? I see the Government just banned ‘western haircuts’.
Should the west now ban ‘eastern headress’?
At least we should ensure identification is possible…security wise. Headgear is fine, just enure that your face can be seen.
If one does not like such, we have an airport and airlines come and go regularly.
Tickets are also available freely.
May 1, 2007 at 11:14 am
BFP, request confirmation of date. Above cannot be correct. Please re-post?
May 1, 2007 at 6:42 pm
Thanks Correction requested…
It is May 3 Thursday…
http://web.pacific.edu/x7863.xml
May 2, 2007 at 12:05 am
Shirin Ebadi has spent her life working within the system and with the hard line clerics to effect change, rather than radically standing up to them. In my opinion she is doing more of the same on the nuclear issue – it is a very popular nationalist position within Iran and going against it would seriously erode her populist standing.
May 2, 2007 at 12:58 am
To the BFP,
re: Shirin Ebadi and her position on the nuclear issue.
As I understand it the Iranians have stated that they are developing nuclear power technology purely for peaceful means.
Let us accept this at face value, is there then something wrong with Iran having such technology?
Alternatively, let us accept the U.S and European position that the Iranians are actually seeking to develop nuclear weapon technology. Does the BFP believe that nuclear weapons should ONLY be held by those countries that presently have them or does it support the position that ALL countries should abandon these weapons?
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BFP Cliverton replies
Hello Citizen First (I admire your name btw)
BFP doesn’t have a single position on nuclear weapons, but I can give you my position.
As to why we should not take Iran’s statements at face value… which statements do you mean?
The statements where they say that they are simply developing nuclear technology for peaceful purposes only?
Or the statements by ruling cleric Ayatollah Ali Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani that if Iran achieves atomic weapons, they should use them against Israel?
Iran has been, and remains, one of the foremost exporters of Muslim terrorists and their brand of evil throughout the Middle East and the world. Your position of accepting Iran’s position “at face value” makes the world exponentially more dangerous.
The values of Iranian society as they are currently manifested are so evil – there is no other word for them – that I can only assume that you haven’t really looked at Iranian society. I would urge you to dig a little deeper than mass media reports before you hand atomic bombs to the Ayatollahs. But even looking at what the Iranians say in their own media on a daily basis, it is a wonder that otherwise intelligent persons like yourself would choose to believe or hear only their staged protestations of peaceful intentions while ignoring what they say to their own people, not to mention the actions of the ruling religious leadership.
Cliverton
May 2, 2007 at 4:44 am
I wonder whats your position on the only country to use nuclear weapons on another and continued development and proliferation of such weapons after at one point being a signatory to a nuclear non-proliferation treaty . That would be the US as you probably know . Also a country under significant Israeli influence , I can’t say that i could blame the Iranians if that were so .
I also understand the development of Nuclear weapons for mass destruction is against stated Sharia law if i have the word spelt correctly which supercedes and guides the law .I think you guys need to also vary your sources a little more to arrive at more balanced opnions as well . Check out the below website for example .
http://www.globalresearch.ca/
Depleted Uranium munitions have been dropped like crazy on Iraq by the village bullies as well so don’t be surprised when we start to get alot more three legged children and other weird things starting to happen. Nuclear weapons need to be banned for ALL .
May 2, 2007 at 5:43 am
My questions really relate to trying to understand Ms Ebadi’s position on nuclear power. I am not aware that she has supported the acquisition of nuclear weapons by Iran but she has supported the development of nuclear energy…hence the first question. The point made by Get in the Action is instructive.
The second question in essence asks why should we (citizens of the world) accept that nuclear weapons should exist at all? It is believed that Israel has nuclear weapons and this fact alone justifies Iran’s desire to acquire the same (at least in the Iranians’ minds).
I do not pretend to have great in-depth knowledge on Iranian politics and society and the little that I do know about Iran comes from western news sources such as Time, Newsweek and the BBC. That said, I am quite taken aback at your statement that ” The values of Iranian society as they are currently manifested are so evil – there is no other word for them “. While I am an ardent supporter of a secular society and abhor especially present day Islam’s view of the role of women, your statement is so sweeping and at odds with the obvious popular support of the Iranian people for the current regime in Iran that I need to ask you to expatiate further on these values of evil.
May 2, 2007 at 10:48 pm
I am not an admirer of Iran and I believe most Iranians hold western values and aspire for affiliation with the West rather than the theocracy of their hardline clerics.
However, this is an issue of tremendous nationalism for Iranians. The US has basically forced them into a corner. On their western and eastern borders they have Iraq and Afghanistan invaded by the US and in turmoil. To the north is Turkmenistan and south is Pakistan both with unstable governments compliant with the US. The clerics and politicians have played on these fears with the nuclear issue.
May 3, 2007 at 10:52 pm
Best news report I’ve seen in a while. Ahmadenijad raked over the coals by the hardliners for kissing his elderly female teacher’s hand at a public function. The man that denied the Holocaust ever happened, and wants see the destruction of Isreal is humbled with a kiss on an 80 year old’s hand. Retribution.