When TIME Magazine named 2003 Nobel Peace Prize Winner Dr. Shirin Ebadi as one of their 2004 ‘TIME 100 Most Influential People in the World’, they rightfully noted that Dr. Ebadi was indeed “a woman of steel” and a human rights champion with “a heart of gold”.
On October 10, 2003, Dr. Shrin Ebadi became the first Muslim woman (and first Iranian citizen) to be awarded the 2003 Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo, Norway. In giving her the 2003 Nobel Peace Prize, the committee members in Oslo noted her special dedication for “the rights of women and children” around the world.
Furthermore, the Nobel committee noted that Dr. Ebadi “has consistently supported non-violence” and as opposed to military armed conflict, she also “favors enlightenment and dialogue as the best path to changing attitudes and resolving conflict” around the world.
To the pleasure of us Washingtonians, 2003 Nobel Peace Prize winner Dr. Shrin Ebadi was in Washington last night (October 14, 2009) to receive the 3rd annual ‘Human Security Award’ sponsored by the Muslim Public Affairs Council Foundation.
At an exclusively-private dinner reception of nearly 40 journalists, members of Congress, ambassadors and other dignitaries at the suburban DC uber-mansion of Pakistani Ambassador-At-Large Raffat Mahmood, Dr. Ebadi graciously accepted her award that evening and gave us her current thoughts on Islam, democracy, human rights and the infamous ‘clash of civilizations’ theory.
Although a physically tiny (and adorable) little woman, the audience was in awe of the first Muslim woman lionness who was the first-ever female to serve as a judge in the hard-core theocratic state of Iran.
In speaking to our small audience of journalists, congresspersons and diplomats, 2003 Nobel Peace Prize winner Dr. Shirin Ebadi began her remarks to us that evening (through her Farsi translator) by saying: “For a few years now, the question has constantly been raised as to whether Islam can indeed be compatible with human rights standards and democracy…This question came as a result of the theory developed by Samuel Huntington and the ‘clash of civilizations’ which basically questioned the compatibility between mainly Muslim civilizations and Western civilizations based on the flawed argument that because human rights and democracy were ‘born’ in the West, that this is not possible at all in the Muslim world…”
“This theory is incorrect both historically and if you look at it logically,” continued Nobel Peace Prize laureate Shirin Ebadi. After further discussing the ‘clash of civilizations theory’, Dr. Ebadi the then shifted the focus of her talk on the responsibility of us 1.57 billion global Muslims living in the millenial age today.
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