Yesterday, I had the privilege of meeting with Dr. Shirin Ebadi along with a few other faculty members here at UC Davis. The previous night she had given a public lecture in which she declared that the West should promote democracy in the Middle East by supporting women's rights.
She talked about the diversity of women's experience in the Islamic world--from Indonesia, Pakistan, and Bangladesh, which have all had (or currently have) women leaders, to Saudi Arabia, where women aren't even allowed to vote. In Iran, she said, women are powerful, and despite unequal conditions are asserting themselves broadly. She noted that women make up 63% of the student body in universities; in law schools, 70%. She said that a woman who has a university education or a job "will not be oppressed."
She showed tremendous pride in Iran's long civilization, and encouraged universities here to establish Iranian studies departments and scholarships to permit Iranian students to study here.
She paid tribute to Aung San Suu Kyi, who still languishes under arrest in Myanmar/Burma.
Dr. Ebadi is a very powerful person, eloquent even in translation. Near the tail end of her speech, every sentence was a manifesto, drawing loud applause in the hall. It was amusing that the applause would come twice, first from those who understood Farsi original and then from those who understood the English translation.
When Kofi Annan retires from his current position, the UN could have no better leader than Dr. Ebadi.
In personal discussions, she was funny, warm and generous, discussing her role as a mother and an educator.
Here, as a reminder, are the Peace Laureates since 1990:
2004 Wangari Maathai
2003 Shirin Ebadi
2002 Jimmy Carter
2001 United Nations, Kofi Annan
2000 Kim Dae-jung
1999 Medecins Sans Frontieres
1998 John Hume, David Trimble
1997 International Campaign to Ban Landmines, Jody Williams
1996 Carlos Filipe Ximenes Belo, Jose Ramos-Horta
1995 Joseph Rotblat, Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs
1994 Yasser Arafat, Shimon Peres, Yitzhak Rabin
1993 Nelson Mandela, F.W. de Klerk
1992 Rigoberta Menchu Tum
1991 Aung San Suu Kyi
1990 Mikhail Gorbachev