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Anonymus-Today: Is Ebadi walking a tight rope ? I wonder !

Ms. Ebadi's response to the charges is inexcusable!

Just listen to her to in this interview with VOA:

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=fy2eqpr0m9w

She goes as far as characterizing the accusation of her daughter being a Baha'i as "fahaashi" towards her entire family !!!!  Now can the Baha'is take comfort in that Ms. Ebadi views their beliefs as a "curse"?  Or should they justify it as "any means will justify the end"?  Is this the tight rope you are referring to?

Her response is carefully worded, as you would expect from an attorney. While she  says that her family denies such charges, her family is actually not being accused of being Baha'is, but rather her daughter, specifically.  No such denial from her daughter has appeared yet.  If her daughter is a Baha'i then the tight rope she has chosen to walk on has a huge safety net made up of her inferred distaste for the Baha'is and their beliefs.  Should we not ask who pays for this safety net and whether the price is too high?

The Baha'is don't need a defense that in the process tramples the very principles for which they have given their lives for and continue to uphold at the price of continued deprivation from basic civil rights.

Ms. Ebadi could have simply denied the accusation and better yet, her daughter could have done so, without the drama of "I and my family are proud to be Shiite" and the rest of her comments denegrading the Baha'is by inference. 

Ms. Ebadi needs to remember that the Baha'is are like no other group that she may have represented.  Her approach to taking on their case requires her to rise up to their standard. They have brought international attention to the plight of their community in Iran and the imprisoned 7 in Evin prison.  Her taking on of this case is a brave act only if she rises up to a new standard.  Whether she is successful in exonerating them from the cooked up charges or not, will not be the point here.  The IRI will use the imprisoned 7 Baha'is for their own purposes and the addition of Ms. Ebadi to the picture will not in any way alter that objective. 

Therefore, she needs to remember that her involvement will be celebrated not by its outcome but rather by its approach.

Honestly,

Alborz

She try

She try do what she can in the field for saving lifs.

It was easy for her to leave Iran and working with UN and others as a Nobel prize but it didn't help noone of people who risk dying.

She reserve all of our respect.

Alborz

You're being dishonest here. In the very next sentence after the one you have quoted here, Ebadi likens the 7 baha'is to political defendents and says, I paraphrase, that the same [meaning the logic of defending a common criminal] applies to political defendants, and that defending a political defendant (a term which is clearly she is attributing to the 7 imprisoned Baha'is) doesn't not imply sharing his or her belief. Obviously, the vicious rumour machine of the regime has tried to discredit Ebadi and it seems nothing is more 'discredting' that saying so and so is a Baha'i. Ms. Ebadi, like her or not, is subject of enough distortions without you muddying the water further. It's easy to sit in the security and comfort of the West and take the high road, but Ebadi has to walk a most delicate tightrope in Iran, what with the threat of execution hanging over everyone's head. What she and her collegues have done in stepping forward and defending the Baha'i defendants is couragous and admirable. They have put their reputation, careers and even lives on the lines. Just remember that.

Authorities have now

Authorities have now presented the 7 Baha’is with charges connected to national security. None have access to legal counsel and all are at risk of phy
Authorities have now presented the 7 Baha’is with charges connected to national security. None have access to legal counsel and all are at risk of physical assault.

PUBLIC
AI Index: MDE 13/109/2008
UPDATE
6 August 2008

Further Information on UA 128/08 (MDE 13/068/2008, 15 May 2008) Arbitrary arrests / Prisoners of conscience

IRAN

Members of the Baha’i community:

Fariba Kamalabadi Taefi (f)
Jamaloddin Khanjani (m)
Afif Naeimi (m)
Saeid Rezaei (m)
Behrouz Tavakkoli (m)
Vahid Tizfahm (m)
Mahvash Sabet (f)

The seven people named above, all members of the Baha’i religious minority, have been charged with vaguely worded charges relating to national security. According to press reports, Tehran's deputy prosecutor claimed that they had “confessed” to setting up an illegal organisation in Iran that took orders from Israel and other states to undermine the ‘Islamic system’. Amnesty International considers the charges politically motivated and that those held are prisoners of conscience, detained solely because of their conscientiously held beliefs or their peaceful activities on behalf of the Baha’i community.

A spokesperson for the Baha'i International Community to the United Nations, rebutted claims made by the authorities, stating that "suggestions of collusion with the state of Israel are categorically false and misleading”.

Six leaders of a group responsible for the Baha’i community’s religious and administrative affairs in Iran (Fariba Kamalabadi Taefi, Jamaloddin Khanjani, Afif Naeimi, Saeid Rezaie, Behrouz Tavakkoli and Vahid Tizfahm), were arrested following raids on their homes by officers from the Ministry of Intelligence in the early hours of 14 May. A seventh person, acting as a secretary for the group, Mahvash Sabet, has been in custody since 5 March.

The seven are in solitary confinement in Section 209 of Tehran's Evin Prison, which is run by the Ministry of Intelligence. Six of them – all except Behrouz Tavakkoli – have had two visits from relatives but none has been granted access to legal representatives.

Fariba Kamalabadi Taefi, Behrouz Tavakkoli and Jamaloddin Khanjani had previously been arrested for their activities on behalf of the Baha’i community.

Three other Baha’is are also currently detained in the city of Shiraz, southern Iran. The reason for their arrest is still not known. They may be prisoners of conscience (See UA 25/08; MDE 13/017/2008, 25 January 2008).

Will she have time to defend the Baha'is?

I wonder why Ms. Ebadi, who not too long ago joined other fellow nobel prize winners in recognizing the oppression of the Bahai's and spoke out in their defence, has in her defense against the accusations of being affiliated with Baha'is through her allegedly Baha'i daughter, has likened her defense of Baha'is to that of her defense of someone accused of being a "murderer" or a "smuggler"?

 If Ms. Ebadi in defending herself and her daughter against this and future accusations, fails to recognize the difference between Baha'is and alleged criminals, she is likely to taint her own reputation abroad.  The world community recognizes the Baha'is as a religious community that is persecuted inside the IRI.  Numerous resolutions in the UN, Congress of the US, and European Parliament have been passed in this regard.

Her expression of commitment to Shia Islam in the context of a legal defence will no doubt create complications for her and I anticipate that before she is in a position of defending the 7 imprisoned Baha'is, she will be consumed with putting on a defence of herself and daughter.

Alborz