Nobel Prize winner Ebadi calls for unity

BY LINDSEY FIELDER
Rice News staff

Nobel Peace Prize winner Shirin Ebadi has a dream. She told a crowd at Grand Hall, Rice Memorial Center, she dreams of a world without a trace of poverty, discrimination or oppression.

“In this dream, I see each human being feeling the problems of others in the world as if it is their own pain,” Ebadi said in the Feb. 3 installment of the President’s Lecture Series. “We should never forget that most of humanity has started with a dream. I’m hopeful that with this dream, we will be able to give our children a much better world.”

Ebadi was awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace in 2003 for her efforts to promote human rights — in particular, the rights of women, children and political prisoners in Iran. She is the first Muslim woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize.

Ebadi started working with women’s rights specifically because it is a common problem in all Islamic countries. Gender descrimination goes back to the early days, when having a baby girl was considered a curse, she said. Even today in some Islamic countries, the life of a woman is worth half the life of a man. At the same time, other Islamic countries have women in high governmental positions.

Ebadi stressed that Islam is the religion of equality — all people are creatures of God and there is no distinction based on gender or otherwise. The religion was based upon democracy and the participation of all citizens. She cited examples of the prophet Mohammed consulting wise men on the important issues of his day.

Some countries, like Malaysia, have “a relatively advanced democracy,” Ebadi said. “While other idealogues argue that Islam is in contradiction with democracy.”

In another dichotomy, Muslims have been living in peace with other religions in Indonesia while some Islamic governments hide behind the shield of the Quran, the Muslim holy book, to justify their acts of violence and discrimination against those who follow other religions.

Ebadi said Islam is under attack from two sides — the fundamentalists who perform acts of violence and those people who judge all Muslims by the misdeeds of a few.

To change the way Muslims are viewed, “we must establish a united front and protect the sanctity of Islam,” she said. “Any true Muslim who is an [intellectual] trying to achieve respect cannot stand oppression.”

The duty of every Muslim is “to paint the true face of Islam,” which is full of compassion and distaste for violence and terrorism. Muslims have lived among followers of other religions for many years in the Middle East and in East Asia, Ebadi said. Muslims should live in coexistence with any religion and extract good ideas from all. “My words are like a dream in this world,” she said. “But I believe that having a dream is a very important part of changing history.”

Her lecture, titled “Human Rights and Islam and the West,” was the annual Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Lecture. Rice President David Leebron said of Ebadi: “I can imagine no better way to celebrate a man with a dream than with a woman who has a dream.”