Nobel Women's Initiative

The Nobel Women's Initiative is very concerned over the Bush administration's announcement that it will increase sanctions against Iranian banks and designate Iranian groups proliferators of weapons of mass destruction and supporters of terrorism.

Read more about the new measures here.

According to Iranian Laureate Shirin Ebadi, the ratcheting up of US unilateral punitive measures against Iran will only make the situation for political reformists more difficult .The designations could bring a backlash against citizens working for human rights, undermining our efforts for democracy and reform in our country.

 

 

Statement from the Nobel Women's Initiative on increased sanctions against Iran

The Nobel Women's Initiative is concerned over the Bush administration's announcement that it will increase sanctions against Iranian banks, designate the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps a proliferator of weapons of mass destruction under Executive Order 13382 and designate the Quds force a supporter of terrorism under Executive Order 13224. These moves will only undermine efforts to resolve tensions between the US and Iran through nonviolent solutions.

Even as she struggles against repression and human rights violations by the Iranian government, 2003 Nobel Peace Laureate Shirin Ebadi underscores the dangers of increased sanctions on Iran. (continued below)

(Iranian Laureate Shirin Ebadi and
US Laureate Jody Williams speak out for
a non-violent resolution to the US-Iran conflict.
January 2007)

According to Dr. Ebadi, The ratcheting up of US unilateral punitive measures against Iran will only make the situation for political reformists and human rights advocates in Iran a lot more difficult. The designations could also bring a backlash against Iranian citizens working for human rights, undermining our efforts for democracy and reform in our country. The Iranian government must respect international law, UN resolutions and human rights, but US policies that encourage isolation will only play directly into the hands of those who want isolation in Iran. The improvement of the situation of democracy and human rights in Iran can only take place when there is peace."

 

Laureate Mairead Maguire stated, "This is dangerous rhetoric and action coming from the US administration, and it serves no good purpose other that to inflame the fear and isolation of Iran, when the obvious and only real road is dialogue and negotiations.  We witnessed similar rhetoric and actions by USA administration  before its illegal occupation and invasion of Iraq.  This time, the international community must stand united against such negative politics of enmity and war."

 

What we are calling for is quite simple: a nonviolent resolution of the standoff between the U.S. and Iran, says 1997 Nobel Peace Laureate Jody Williams.

These new measures by the Bush administration could lead to a tit-for-tat escalation resulting in military confrontation. We do not want to see another Iraq and more disruption in the volatile and fragile Middle East. We do not want to see more suffering among women and children in another Middle Eastern country. We demand the Bush administration engage in a serious and sustained diplomatic initiative with Iran without preconditions. The US has engaged in successful dialogue with North Korea, another of the "axis of evil," over its nuclear weapons.  There is no reason that it cannot do the same with Iran over its nuclear program.

 

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Also Read:

Unprecedented Punitive Measures Against Iran will Bring Backlash, The Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation, 25 October 2007

U.S. to Impose New Sanctions Targeting Iran's Military, The Washington Post, 25 October 2007

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Read the latest News on the Middle East.

Read about the US-Iran conflict at our Issue page.

For opportunities for action and education on US- Iran relations go here.

Also, find out what you can do to support women's rights defenders in Iran.

 

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UPDATE - ,Freed by Iran, scholar reunited with her family  Washington Post, 7 September 2007

Haleh Esfandiari free to leave Iran, joins family in Vienna

(5 September 2007) Early Monday morning, Haleh Esfandiari was finally able to leave Iran. She reunited with her husband and sister in Vienna, where she plans to rest before returning to the United States.

Parnaz Azima, a US-Iranian journalist, was also freed to leave Iran this week after authorities returned her passport.

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Haleh Esfandiari released on bail

(22 August 2007) The Nobel Women's Initiative welcomes the release of Dr. Haleh Esfandiari from Evin Prison after over three months in solitary confinement. Despite her release, she has not been reissued a passport and remains unable to leave Iran. Though no date has been set for trial, the charges against her have not been dropped. The basis of her imprisonment has been an unfounded accusation of endangering national security.

Associated Press reports that, Esfandiari's lawyer and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Shirin Ebadi said her client has the legal right to leave the country but authorities seized her passport in January and have not returned it or issued a new one. I'm certain that my client is innocent and she must be acquitted of the charges,' Ebadi said. She vowed to prove her client's innocence in court.

The Nobel Women's Initiative urges the government of Iran to drop all charges and allow for Dr. Esfandiari's immediate return to the United States.

See our previous call for her release below.

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NWI calls for the release of Haleh Esfandiari

(17 July 2007) The Nobel Women's Initiative calls on the Government of Iran to immediately release Haleh Esfandiari from Evin Prison, to drop all charges against her, and to free her to return to her home and family.

Haleh Esfandiari, a dual Iranian-American national, the Director of the Middle East Program at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington DC, and a renowned scholar in her own right, was arrested by the Iranian authorities on May 8 and has since been held in solitary confinement at Evin Prison. In violation of the Iranian Constitution, Iranian law and Iran's international commitments, Dr. Esfandiari has been held in solitary confinement, subjected to tens of hours of interrogation without benefit of counsel, and denied family visits, contact with her lawyer or effective legal representation. Dr. Esfandiari's lawyer, our sister Nobel Laureate, Shirin Ebadi, has not been allowed to visit her. (Read a letter from Shirin Ebadi to the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention at the bottom of this page).

Dr. Esfandiari is 67 and a grandmother. There is good reason to be concerned about the state of her mental and physical health and her treatment by the prison and security authorities.

Dr. Esfandiari's harassment began even earlier than her arrest on May 8. Dr. Esfandiari went to Tehran in December 2006 to visit her 93 year old mother. On December 30, on her way to the airport to fly back to her home in the United States, she was stopped by three masked, knife-wielding men who took away all her belongings, including her American and Iranian passports.

Prevented from leaving the country, she was subjected to over 50 hours of interrogation by officials of the Ministry of Intelligence, subjected to intimidation and threatened with graver consequences if she did not cooperate with the authorities. Such interrogation methods continued after her unjustified incarceration in Evin Prison.

Iranian authorities apparently wish to charge her with actions against national security. Such charges are entirely without foundation. In her work at the Wilson Center, Dr. Esfandiari has strived to provide a forum for exchanges among scholars, researchers and journalists representing a wide range of views on Middle Eastern issues. She has been a tireless promoter of and believer in dialogue between Iran and the international community. She has devoted a lifetime to the advancement of women's rights in the Middle East.

Dr. Esfandiari is a published author and editor. Before taking up her present position at the Wilson Center, Dr. Esfandiari for many years taught Persian language and literature at Princeton University. In a letter to the Iranian authorities calling for her release, her former students have noted that it was Dr. Esfandiari who instilled in them a love for the Persian language and Persian literature. It is astonishing that Iranian authorities should subject a woman who has been devoted to Iran all her life to unfair treatment, incarceration and unfounded charges.

Human rights organizations, leading associations of Middle Eastern scholars, university professors, and scientists, international women's organizations, and leading newspapers all over the world have called for an end to Dr. Esfandiari's unjustified imprisonment.

The Nobel Women's Initiative calls on the Iranian government to adhere to its own high principles of justice and fairness. It is time end Dr. Esfandiari's imprisonment, to restore her freedom, and to allow her to return home.

ENDS

More information on Haleh's arrest and support for her freedom:

Free Haleh!

Iran widens investigation of two jailed Americans, Washington Post, 11 July 2007

Human rights groups hold vigil for detained Iranian-Americans, Voice of America, 28 June 2007

Hostage in Iran, International Herald Tribune, 11 May 2007

Haleh Esfandiari's plight, United Press International, 11 May 2007

Download the pdf of the letter from Dr. Esfandiari's lawyer, Shirin Ebadi, to the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, 1 August 2007, here.

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We write to you from the 7th World Social Forum in Nairobi, Kenya, and we assure you that the tens of thousands of people gathered here from around the world are with you today in Spirit.

The United States used the excuse of weapons of mass destruction to invade Iraq and of course these weapons did not exist. The result has been more terrorism and less security and death and destruction in Iraq as well as the huge costs to the American citizens, the majority of whom do not support the war.

No country not Iran, not the United States should have nuclear weapons. We call for total nuclear disarmament.

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(10 January 2007 Washington DC) During a press conference organized by the Center for Arms Control and Non-proliferation, Dr. Shirin Ebadi and Prof. Jody Williams offered their views on what can be done to improve relations between the U.S. and Iran. Taking place two days before President Bush was scheduled to announce his new plan for Iraq; the Laureates urged the Bush administration to develop a peaceful, strategic dialogue with Iran.

Later that evening both Dr. Ebadi  and Prof. Williams spoke about their hope for a new course in US-Iran relations at an event hosted by University of California, the Center for Arms Control and Nonproliferation, the National Iranian American Council and the Nobel Women's Initiative. Titled, Rebuilding US-Iran Relations, Dr. Ebadi and Prof. Williams addressed creative initiatives that could improve relations between the United States and Iran and actions of support in which individuals can take part. 

To read an unofficial English transaltion of Dr. Ebadi's comments from the evening, please see below.

*** Media links

Nobel Peace Prize Winners Urge Talks Between US and Iran - Voice of America, 8 January 2007

Women Nobel Laureates Call for New U.S.-Iran Engagement - OneWorld.net, 10 January 2007 

***Media Release

(8 January 2007 - Washington DC) Two days before President Bush will deliver a speech announcing a new course in Iraq which will exclude the Iraq Study group's recommendation to engage Iran, women Nobel Peace Prize winners Dr. Shirin Ebadi and Professor Jody Williams will be in Washington, D.C. to call for constructive US-Iran dialogue and engagement.

During a press conference on Monday, January 8, 2007, Dr. Ebadi and Prof. Williams will offer their views on what can be done to improve relations between the U.S. and Iran. Their ongoing calls for non-violent solutions to the stalemate are particularly relevant given the recent revelations in the media that the Iran Syria Policy and Operations Group (ISOG) is intensifying its secretive planning on Iran.

Even in the face of Iranian government discrimination, 2003 Nobel Peace Laureate and Iranian human rights activist Shirin Ebadi underscores the dangers of international punishment or military interference in Iran. According to Dr. Ebadi, It's the people of Iran that have to gain their own freedom and human rights improvements. Military action or other punishments against Iran will make the situation for political reformists and human rights advocates in Iran a lot more difficult. I don't think that Iranian human rights advocates need help of that sort from the governments of the West. But I expect people in the West to support freedom-seekers in Iran.

What we are calling for is quite simple: a nonviolent resolution of the standoff between the U.S. and Iran, says Jody Williams. We do not want to see another Iraq and more disruption in the volatile and fragile Middle East. We do not want to see more suffering among women and children in another Middle Eastern country. No more military action. We demand a negotiated resolution of the standoff.

Also on Monday, January 8, the University of California, the Center for Arms Control and Nonproliferation, the National Iranian American Council and the Nobel Women's Initiative will host Rebuilding US-Iran Relations, a public event with Ebadi and Williams at the University of California Washington Center. The event will be from 6:30 pm to 8:00 pm.

Ebadi and Williams will discuss creative initiatives that could improve relations between the United States and Iran. In addition, Ebadi and Williams will explore what individuals can do to ensure that the current tensions do not escalate into armed conflict. Dr. Ebadi will speak about the political and social landscape in Iran today, including the human rights and women's rights campaigns, and the Iranian reform movement. Professor Williams will speak about the Nobel Women's Initiative's efforts to promote direct engagement between the US and Iran.

Dr._Ebadi's_Unofficial_Translation_of_US-_Iran_Relations.pdf

photos by Carah Ong

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Update

Ten Nobel Peace Prize laureates have written to Iran's Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki urging the government of Iran to "immediately reverse its threat of prosecution against Iran's most prominent independent human rights organization and Dr. Shirin Ebadi."

The letter was signed by Laureates Máiread Corrigan Maguire (1976), Betty Williams (1976), Adolfo Pérez Esquivel (1980), Elie Wiesel (1986), The Dalai Lama (1989), Rigoberta Menchú Tum (1992), Bishop Carlos Belo (1996), Jody Williams (1997) and Wangari Maathai (2004).

"The silencing of the CDHR would be an enormous set back for human rights around the world. At a time of escalating global violence and crimes against humanity, we are asking the government of Iran to take a stand for human rights and to serve as a beacon of hope for the people of Iran, the Middle East, and the world." See full text of letter below.

Background

Dr. Shirin Ebadi, 2003 Nobel peace laureate and co-founder of the Center for Defense of Human Rights (CDHR) and fellow human rights defenders have been threatened with prosecution.

The CDHR reports on violations of human rights in Iran, defends dissidents and political prisoners pro bono and supports the families of such prisoners. They have defended many victims of human rights abuses since their inception four years ago.

On August 3, the interior ministry of the government of Iran announced that the CDHR was an illegal organization and threatened its president, Dr. Shirin Ebadi, and her staff with prosecution if they continue their human rights activities.

An interior ministry statement claimed the CDHR had not obtained the proper permit.

Yet such civil society organizations are not required by law to obtain permission to operate. As Shirin Ebadi responded to the announcement, Under Iran's constitution, nongovernmental organizations that obey the law and do not disrupt public order do not need a permit.

Human Rights Watch stated, in their August 9 press release, the government's threat, and the continued withholding of a permit for the CDHR, is a blatant attack on the legitimate exercise of fundamental rights and independent voices in Iran, and should be of concern to all who support peaceful democratic progress in Iran.
The Nobel Women's Initiative calls on the government of Iran to reverse its threat to the CDHR, and to enable human rights defenders to operate peacefully free from fear of intimidation and prosecution, according to Iranian and international law.

For media stories:

Who's Afraid of Shirin Ebadi, New York Times, 15 August 2006

Nobel Peace Winner Threatened with Arrest, Inter Press Service, 28 August 2006

For statements by human rights organizations:

Amnesty International

Human Rights First

Take Action:
Urge Iran to Reverse Threat to Shirin Ebadi's Humsn Rights Organization

Message from Shirin Ebadi
5 August 2006

There is a very important matter I would like to discuss with you. I conduct my human rights activities through the Defender of Human Rights Center (DHRC). I am the president of this center and we have three important responsibilities:

a. We report the violations of human rights that take place in Iran.
b. We defend political prisoners pro bono -- about 70% of the political prisoners in Iran are clients of our center and we do not charge them for our services.
c. We support the families of these prisoners both financially -- if they require financial aid -- and spiritually.

This center is a member of the International Federation of Human Rights (FIDH) and has been registered there. It has also been awarded a human rights prize by the Human Rights National Commission in France. This center is very well known and credible in Iran. Two days ago the government of Iran announced that this center is illegal and provided we continue our activities, they shall arrest us. Of course me and the other members of the center do not intend to shut down the center and we shall continue our activities. However, there is a high possibility that that they will arrest us. The government's action in this regard is illegal.

This center has been established and working for more than four years now. I believe this decision of the government has been triggered by my memoir being published. In any case, I am happy that my memoir has been published, for the truth must be told.

Therefore, I kindly request that you broadcast this message by all means and gather spiritual support for our center.
Best wishes,

Shirin

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Download the pdf of the Nobel Peace Laureates Letter to the Foreign Minister of Iran in English, or Farsi.

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The Nobel Women's Initiative is a new project of women Nobel Peace Laureates, including Jody Williams, Shirin Ebadi, Wangari Maathai, Rigoberta Menchu and Betty Williams. In April 2006, Jody Williams and Shirin Ebadi-- feeling a particular responsibility as US and Iranian Peace Laureates issued a joint statement on the growing tensions between their governments. That was the first step in a series of actions the Nobel Women's Initiative is undergoing to promote a non-violent resolution of the current crisis between the US and Iran.

From June 6-8, 2006 Prof. Williams and Dr. Ebadi led a delegation of American and Iranian civil society representatives to Vienna for meetings with representatives of the International Atomic Energy Agency's Board of Governors, prior to the Board of Governors meeting the following week. Members of the delegation met with Austria's Foreign Minister, Ms Ursula Plaasnik, as Austria serves as current President of the European Union, Permanent Missions to the IAEA from Egypt (Vice Chair of the Board), Canada, The Russian Federation, and the United Kingdom, Germany and France (the 'EU 3' playing a key role) as well as with IAEA officials. Williams and Ebadi also met with Director General Dr. ElBaradei.

Williams and Ebadi not only led this delegation to meet with relevant governments, but most importantly to broaden dialogue between Iranian and US civil society. Non- governmental organizations working on issues including the rights of women and children, human rights, landmines and nuclear disarmament participated in two days of dialogue. They exchanged experiences and explored ways for further cooperation and follow-up. American delegates included representatives of the Feminist Majority Foundation, American Friends Service Committee, Global Fund for Women, Institute for Policy Studies, Nuclear Information and Resource Service, Women's International League for Peace and Freedom and Greenpeace International. Iranian delegates include representatives of NGO's working on landmine clearance, women's rights, children's rights and environmental issues.

The delegates issued a Statement for Peace  and the Nobel Women's Initiative held a press conference on 8 June at the Vienna International Centre.

For media articles, visit:

Washington Post

Islamic Republic News Agency

Williams and Ebadi call for a negotiated resolution to the US-Iran standoff while in Vienna. AP Photo.

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(Los Angeles, 11 April 2006) We two women, Jody Williams and Shirin Ebadi, are Nobel Peace Prize Laureates from the United States and Iran. At this dangerous moment of heightening tension with the probability of military conflict between our countries, we demand:

• That our governments not resort to armed violence and instead negotiate a solution to the increasing crisis;

• That our governments stop human rights violations and curtailment of civil liberties at home and abroad; Our civil rights and human rights must not be compromised in the war against terrorism;

• That they reduce military budgets and use those resources in benefit of their peoples and the people of the world;

• That our governments not inflame old hatreds and instead work toward a brighter future for our children;

Violence is a choice. We demand non-violent solutions to our common problems. Negotiated solutions to the current crises must also include our parliaments and NGO's- the voices of civil society.

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