VIDEO: Shirin Ebadi @ University of Amsterdam, 7th Nov. 2011

Pejman7
by Pejman7
08-Nov-2011
 

On Monday, 7th Nov. 2011, Shirin Ebadi, 2003 Nobel Peace Prize winner, delivered a lecture at the University of Amsterdam.

"Arab Spring and Iran" was the theme of her lecture which was presented in Persian with simultaneous audio translation in English.


Video
: Pejman Akbarzadeh / Radio Zamaneh

ORIGINAL LINK IN PERSIAN: //radiozamaneh.com/politics/2011/11/08/8180

 

 

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Darius Kadivar

Pejman Jaan Well that's precisely the trouble ...

by Darius Kadivar on

Ms Ebadi's "interpretation of Islam" which explains why she hasn't understood a thing about the so called "Arab Spring" which is precisely supposed to be the subject of her conference.

Mrs. Ebadi got the Nobel Peace Prize in 2003 as the First Muslim Women in the "Arabo Muslim" world ( which therefore includes Iran and the rest of the Muslim Countries) to have been honored by this once Prestigious award.

I say "Once Prestigious" cause unlike other categories ( like Science, Literature, etc) ... No offence to mrs. Ebadi but personally I have never considered this particular award as significant but rather controversial at best:

FART ALERT: Nobel Peace Prize Committee Struggles to Choose 2011 Laureate

It always has been and for good reason:

Top 10 Nobel Prize Controversies - TIME 

And i am not the only one to observe this ...

So has Saideh Pakravan ( daughter of the late General) in her latest article on Iranian.com for this year's 2011 selection:

An awkward Nobel Peace Prize

I even recall that Mrs Ebadi in her inaugural speech at the time She even claimed that she was the daughter of the Land of Cyrus the Great and Muhammad the Prophet.

In otherwords when Mrs. speaks ( and is invited to speak) she speaks not only in the name of us Iranians but is also addressing muslims worldwide.

Yet she chooses to boil down the entire so called "Arab Spring"  to a question of an inexistent "Battle of Sexes" ...

I was surprised that such a World Figure and so called Role Model for the Muslim Community worldwide chose to remain silent to date and particularly during some of the most horrendous periods (notably the massacre of Libyans by Gaddafi followed shortly after by that of the Syrians by Bachar in the early days of the conflict ) only to speak up today when her insights and bold Stance  could have mattered and made a difference as to the International communities hesitant reaction to the uprisings in the region. Her insights could have been influential and welcome at the time.

But she chose to be silent.  

Unlike Simin Behbahani:

Simin Behbahani Compares Khamenei's Rule to That of Gaddafi's


Particularly at a time when many "other" muslims were demanding help from the so called "Free World" and America in particular to help them fight a Brutal Tyrant who was massacring them as was the case for the Libyans in Benghazi and Misrata to general indifference of the international community ( including the indifference of some of her very own Nobel Peace Prize colleagues) as if they were looking down at them as merely "Jihadists" and or "Al Quaeda" terrorists ( hence in the process believing any crap delivered to them by Gaddafi's Propagandists as Bachar el Assad today with the Libyans) ...

 

Instead the most urgent matter for this eminent lady at the time was to lecture us lecture Iranian Americans ( on behalf of NIAC)  as to how to vote in the upcoming American Presidential elections so as to avoid a Possible Hypothetical War with Iran as in her interview with Roxanna Saberi ...

Ebadi: Vote for those who respect human rights - CNN

 

Her above interview to me both as an Iranian and an Iranian American is an insult to one's intelligence.  I mean who is she to lecture us on how best vote in the upcoming Presidential elections in the countries where we reside ? 

 

Her bankrupt solutions and personal participation in the previous elections in our own previous country ( Iran) and under the regime and the Constitution of Which she chose to "legitimize" by participating in them led her and her likeminds to exile like the rest of our miserable lot in the Diaspora yet she wishes to LECTURE US ON HOW TO VOTE ? ...

How YOUR "Green" Color Was Chosen & By WHOME !

Merely to satify the Moral and political dilemmas of Iranians back home ?

I mean how presumptous ?

As if we are not able to make up our minds as to what could threaten our compatriots back home based on the political rhetoric of a given Presidential Candidate ( or Prime Minister )in our Country or Residence in Europe or the US or Canada ?

How about Mrs Ebadi lecturing us on our Patriotism also  ?

FED UP WITH POLITICAL CORRECTNESS: Ahmadinejad is NOT my Prime Minister ! 

SATIRE: I voted ;0)

Mrs. Ebadi's behavior also indicates that her so called "universal" approach for which she has been given the Nobel Peace Prize after all is anything but "Universal" but merely limited to her own biased and distorted outlook on the role of Islam in the modern world and in civil society in general.

It is precisely people like Mrs. Ebadi who are in a position to make a difference (because of the so called "aura" which their over estimated credentials offer them) by being offered an international forum to offer concrete steps and IDEAS aimed at finding solutions to the problems highlighted in her speach.

But what has she said which truly was pertinent in the clip suggested that people don't know already ? I see none.

In addition It is interesting that she goes on and rants about how the Western Powers have been doing business with the regimes of the region despite their crippled record on Human Rights. May I ask who supported many of these dictators in the First place and the revolutions which brought them to power ?

If not many West Residing Anti American left wing intellectuals ( many of whom like her Friend Hamid Dabashi ) supported with enthusiasm in the first place ?

PHOTO :Gaddafi hailed as the « Che Guevera » of North Africa by West Residing « Hippies » Left Wing Students and Intellectuals after his Coup against the Libyan Constitutional Monarchy 

The same so called "Peaceniks" who boasted on violations of Human Rights against the Shah were hailing Gaddafi as the "Che Guevera" of the Maghreb back in the 70's when Mrs. Ebadi was a student. The same West Residing "Moralists" were against seeing Gaddafi deposed when the West and France in Particular responded positively to their Libyan People's desperate cry.

Not surprising that Mrs. Ebadi's Friend and NIAC colleague Hamid Dabashi boasted against the intervention ... 

NIAC’s Hamid Dabashi Denounces Hypocrisy of Foreign Intervention in Libya

 

Nearly ALL the regimes in the Middle East and North Africa which have brutally cracked down on their people during this Arab Spring were born from the Anti Colonialist Socialist movements following WWII.

This is true for Gaddafi's regime Libya 

Nasser in Egypt ( who at the time was seen as the Mossadegh of Egypt for his successful attempt to Nationalize the suez Canal) and whom Mubarak inherited the post of Presidency after Sadat ( who he on the otherhand broke away from the Soviet hemisphere and the Arab world thanks to his closeness to the Shah of Iran and the Camp David Peace Treaty with Israel)

Hafez Al Assad in Syria ( whose son took over since).

Saleh's Yemen ( whose country also created trouble for Iran thanks terrorists networks to oppose the Shah when he had become the "Gendarme of the Persian Gulf")

Not only Mrs.Ebadi hasn't got a clue of what has been taking place in the region for the past 8 months she has absolutely nothing to propose other than a succession of wishful comments fit for a class of Obedient students ...

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_Y6UKMp8Qw

I hope and am confident that Journalists like you and others at Radio Zamaneh tried at least to challenge her views with some blunt questions otherwise I truly don't see the point of putting this lady in the spot light as if every word she uttered was a stroke of genius.

My observation is not a critic of you or Radio Zamaneh for that matter. It is merely a blunt observation on the importance given to such public figures merely because of their "fame".

If people have nothing to say or add anything of substance to a given debate then they might as well Shut Up !

This is true whether it's Shirin Ebadi, "shahrvand" Reza Pahlavi, Maryam Rajavi or Trita Parsi or any other public figure.

The trouble with Us Iranians in the Diaspora is we avoid debating on crucial matters even when it hurts so as to avoid drawing CONCRETE Conclusions as to what to do to overcome the obstacles at hand.

Instead our intelligentsia and Political figureheads are at best Fashion Victims giving in to any generally accepted opinion as if what is being said corresponds to the truth or is pertinent simply because someone Famous has said it.

Otherwise what is the purpose of these public gatherings if no one displays a minimum of critical thinking ?

I myself have been to similar gatherings with Mrs. Ebadi here in Paris at the Cinemateque and she was uttering the same unimaginative and fashionable comments who anyone in the same shoes could have made if not better.

I left feeling that it was an utter waste of time !

This ony indicates the poverty of our so called Intelligenstia to come to grips with the realities of the world let alone the equally bitter realities of our own suppressed country.

That's Why I truly don't count on their POV to solve them ...

My Humble But Blunt Opinion,

DK

PS: As for Mrs. Ebadi's "Battle of the Sexes" Well I hope at least that their was a Cocktail Party after the conference to liven up the conversations ... ;0)

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=FNmBauXYzgc

Related:

Nobel Peace Prize awarded jointly to three women (bbc)

 


Pejman7

key role in human rights issue

by Pejman7 on

I am not interested in Ms Ebadi's interpretation of Islam but we should not forget that she has had a key role to attract international attention to critical situtaion of human rights in Iran.