Would you like to inspect the original subtitles? These are the user uploaded subtitles that are being translated:
1
00:00:00,178 --> 00:00:37,615
*Opening music*
2
00:00:02,000 --> 00:00:07,000
Downloaded from
YTS.MX
3
00:00:08,000 --> 00:00:13,000
Official YIFY movies site:
YTS.MX
4
00:00:37,615 --> 00:00:42,053
Six hundred and fifty kilometers from the cradle of civilization,
5
00:00:42,053 --> 00:00:46,991
a little girl was born in the ancient city of Hamadan.
6
00:00:49,694 --> 00:00:52,797
She was the second oldest of four children
7
00:00:52,797 --> 00:00:56,200
and her father and mother loved her dearly.
8
00:01:00,805 --> 00:01:02,473
The next Nobel Peace Laureate
9
00:01:02,473 --> 00:01:04,709
who I get the honor of introducing to you,
10
00:01:04,709 --> 00:01:09,313
and she is such an incredibly powerful and brave woman,
11
00:01:09,313 --> 00:01:12,250
she actually has been imprisoned for her work
12
00:01:12,250 --> 00:01:14,652
for the rights of women and children,
13
00:01:14,652 --> 00:01:17,255
and for human rights in her country.
14
00:01:17,255 --> 00:01:19,323
And before she came here
15
00:01:19,323 --> 00:01:22,693
her government was threatening to imprison her again,
16
00:01:22,693 --> 00:01:24,695
and the Nobel Laureates on this stage
17
00:01:24,695 --> 00:01:28,199
and human rights organizations around the world said “no”
18
00:01:28,199 --> 00:01:31,969
This woman must be free and be able to continue her work,
19
00:01:31,969 --> 00:01:34,272
because she is making an incredible difference
20
00:01:34,272 --> 00:01:36,240
and the world supports her.
21
00:01:36,240 --> 00:01:39,777
And, so please join us in a heartfelt welcome,
22
00:01:39,777 --> 00:01:40,611
we are so glad
23
00:01:40,611 --> 00:01:42,947
that she is here with us and we hope that she remains free
24
00:01:42,947 --> 00:01:47,618
to do her work for the rest of her life – Shirin Ebadi of Iran.
25
00:01:52,623 --> 00:02:00,731
When people are oppressed all their lives and they are
26
00:02:00,731 --> 00:02:06,804
deprived of their most basic human rights, they may lose control,
27
00:02:06,804 --> 00:02:10,007
they may set fire to the world,
28
00:02:10,007 --> 00:02:14,445
causing misery to themselves and others.
29
00:02:14,445 --> 00:02:20,451
When 80% of the wealth of the world
30
00:02:20,451 --> 00:02:27,491
belongs to 1% of the population of the world,
31
00:02:27,491 --> 00:02:29,894
how can we expect peace?
32
00:02:29,894 --> 00:02:35,566
Let's bring an end to injustice, especially for women.
33
00:02:35,566 --> 00:02:39,770
Let's decrease the gap between the haves and have nots
34
00:02:39,770 --> 00:02:43,974
at every single level.
35
00:02:43,974 --> 00:02:47,478
And then we will see that we can start walking towards peace.
36
00:03:03,928 --> 00:03:08,699
What is the position of women in Iran right now?
37
00:03:08,699 --> 00:03:11,736
Iranian women are very dissatisfied with these laws.
38
00:03:11,736 --> 00:03:14,238
As a result, the Iranian feminist movement
39
00:03:14,238 --> 00:03:17,041
is deep and spreading rapidly.
40
00:03:17,041 --> 00:03:20,077
And certainly Iranian women will win this struggle.
41
00:03:20,077 --> 00:03:23,080
Shirin Ebadi has been found guilty.
42
00:03:23,080 --> 00:03:25,549
She is sentenced to five years in prison.
43
00:03:25,549 --> 00:03:37,395
Long live Ebadi! Long live Ebadi! Long live Ebadi!
44
00:03:38,429 --> 00:03:42,433
She is questioning the laws of our country.
45
00:03:42,433 --> 00:03:47,204
Truly, the law has to be changed!
46
00:03:53,077 --> 00:03:56,781
She is questioning Islamic punishments.
47
00:03:56,781 --> 00:04:01,318
I said no, that I would not become silent under any condition.
48
00:04:01,318 --> 00:04:06,557
With all the atrocities committed in Iran, I cannot be silent.
49
00:04:06,557 --> 00:04:10,094
Then, the death threats against Shirin and her daughters
50
00:04:10,094 --> 00:04:13,097
started to increase, to intensify.
51
00:04:13,097 --> 00:04:23,707
The nation of Iran made a terrible mistake.
52
00:04:28,913 --> 00:04:30,915
As countries around the world continue
53
00:04:30,915 --> 00:04:33,017
to take away the rights of women…
54
00:04:36,454 --> 00:04:38,389
sometimes slowly…
55
00:04:39,190 --> 00:04:42,026
sometimes in the blink of an eye…
56
00:04:48,699 --> 00:04:50,234
Shirin Ebadi,
57
00:04:50,234 --> 00:04:54,738
the first Muslim woman to ever win the Nobel Peace Prize,
58
00:04:54,738 --> 00:04:58,976
continues to fight for justice.
59
00:04:58,976 --> 00:05:03,047
This is a story about how quickly things can change;
60
00:05:03,047 --> 00:05:08,686
how fragile democracy and human freedom can be.
61
00:05:09,787 --> 00:05:11,789
This is a cautionary tale
62
00:05:11,789 --> 00:05:13,724
about one woman’s struggle
63
00:05:13,724 --> 00:05:16,527
to restore the rights that women have lost. .
64
00:05:16,527 --> 00:05:20,764
the women of Iran, the women of the world.
65
00:05:26,770 --> 00:05:31,041
Shirin Ebadi: Until We Are Free
66
00:05:41,151 --> 00:05:44,822
From childhood, I fell in love with a phenomenon
67
00:05:44,822 --> 00:05:48,158
I later learned was justice.
68
00:05:48,158 --> 00:05:53,364
When I was a child and saw other children fighting
69
00:05:53,364 --> 00:05:57,902
I would go aid the underdog,
70
00:05:57,902 --> 00:06:00,304
without even knowing what they were fighting about,
71
00:06:00,304 --> 00:06:05,376
which would also cause me to get in the middle and get beaten.
72
00:06:05,376 --> 00:06:06,877
And when I was a child,
73
00:06:06,877 --> 00:06:08,846
I was fearless.
74
00:06:08,846 --> 00:06:13,484
My mother used to say I “climbed the sheer wall"
75
00:06:13,484 --> 00:06:19,323
I fell and cracked my head open three times.
76
00:06:19,323 --> 00:06:22,393
My mother used to say,
77
00:06:22,393 --> 00:06:27,197
she never remembered a time when
78
00:06:27,197 --> 00:06:31,769
some part of my body was not injured
79
00:06:31,769 --> 00:06:36,774
as I was very much a daredevil.
80
00:06:37,741 --> 00:06:40,511
There were three girls and one boy in our family.
81
00:06:40,511 --> 00:06:45,215
But, my brother and sisters, we were treated the same.
82
00:06:45,215 --> 00:06:50,220
He did not enjoy more freedom than we did.
83
00:06:50,220 --> 00:06:54,925
In our family my father was a true feminist.
84
00:06:54,925 --> 00:06:58,862
Of course my mother was one too.
85
00:06:58,862 --> 00:07:02,199
But what counts is my father
86
00:07:02,199 --> 00:07:05,603
who really had a terrific way of thinking.
87
00:07:05,603 --> 00:07:09,773
But this stubborn child
88
00:07:09,773 --> 00:07:14,411
also had her wishes and dreams.
89
00:07:14,411 --> 00:07:21,251
When I was a child I wanted to become a math teacher
90
00:07:21,251 --> 00:07:26,123
and that was the most important thing in the world to me.
91
00:07:26,123 --> 00:07:31,762
I was born and raised in a modern Muslim family.
92
00:07:31,762 --> 00:07:36,433
My parents said their prayers and practiced their religion.
93
00:07:36,433 --> 00:07:40,404
But it is interesting to know that
94
00:07:40,404 --> 00:07:43,907
I was not educated in a Muslim School.
95
00:07:43,907 --> 00:07:46,010
I attended a Zoroastrian School.
96
00:07:46,010 --> 00:07:50,147
The school was a good school and close to our house.
97
00:07:50,147 --> 00:07:54,318
My father said we are Shia Muslims,
98
00:07:54,318 --> 00:07:59,156
and they are Zoroastrians. We are good people, and so are they.
99
00:07:59,156 --> 00:08:08,799
Actually, I have always seen all religions as equal and good.
100
00:08:08,799 --> 00:08:12,636
This is how I've been raised.
101
00:08:14,438 --> 00:08:18,142
What I remember from my childhood
102
00:08:18,142 --> 00:08:20,411
is my grandmother’s house.
103
00:08:20,411 --> 00:08:24,982
Playing hide and seek in her fruit orchards
104
00:08:24,982 --> 00:08:27,451
and returning home at night
105
00:08:27,451 --> 00:08:31,655
with sticky fingers and berry stained clothes.
106
00:08:32,022 --> 00:08:36,026
I remember the smell of night blooming jasmine
107
00:08:36,026 --> 00:08:39,263
and the taste of apricots and cherries,
108
00:08:39,263 --> 00:08:41,632
pomegranates and plums.
109
00:08:41,632 --> 00:08:44,134
And it was in the garden,
110
00:08:44,134 --> 00:08:46,670
my grandmother's garden,
111
00:08:46,670 --> 00:08:48,872
that's where the family would gather
112
00:08:48,872 --> 00:08:53,577
to laugh, to play, to eat, to sing.
113
00:08:53,577 --> 00:08:55,579
We lived in Tehran,
114
00:08:55,579 --> 00:09:01,952
but every chance we had, we went back home to Hamadan.
115
00:09:04,288 --> 00:09:07,658
My childhood memories of my grandmother's garden
116
00:09:07,658 --> 00:09:11,428
are like a dream. But I remember one night.
117
00:09:11,428 --> 00:09:14,698
My parents sat huddled around the radio
118
00:09:14,698 --> 00:09:16,834
closer than usual with rapt expressions,
119
00:09:16,834 --> 00:09:22,706
the copper bowl of pistachios before them untouched.
120
00:09:22,706 --> 00:09:28,112
I remember the faces of my parents, my grandmother's harsh tone,
121
00:09:28,112 --> 00:09:34,284
and even the wooden gleam of the radio.
122
00:09:34,284 --> 00:09:39,423
It's fixed in my mind. The looks on their faces,
123
00:09:39,423 --> 00:09:46,296
the day Mosaddegh, Iran's first democratically elected leader,
124
00:09:46,296 --> 00:09:52,002
was tossed out of the government in a coup organized by the CIA.
125
00:09:52,002 --> 00:09:56,974
My father, a longtime supporter of the ousted Prime Minister,
126
00:09:56,974 --> 00:10:00,511
was forced out of his job.
127
00:10:00,511 --> 00:10:06,617
He was never appointed at the senior level again.
128
00:10:06,617 --> 00:10:09,720
He never explained to us what happened,
129
00:10:09,720 --> 00:10:13,857
why suddenly he was home all day, pensive and quiet.
130
00:10:13,857 --> 00:10:20,264
After that date, my father refused to discuss politics at home.
131
00:10:20,264 --> 00:10:25,569
As a result, my growing up was singular in another way.
132
00:10:25,569 --> 00:10:33,010
I was oblivious to politics, except for that one fateful night in 1953.
133
00:10:33,010 --> 00:10:37,781
As one grows up, one’s own dreams also become larger.
134
00:10:37,781 --> 00:10:40,584
But these great dreams
135
00:10:40,584 --> 00:10:42,553
had different interpretations
136
00:10:42,553 --> 00:10:45,055
in different times of my life.
137
00:10:45,055 --> 00:10:48,826
My father said that one destroyed
138
00:10:48,826 --> 00:10:52,129
career was enough for any family.
139
00:10:52,129 --> 00:10:56,633
He insisted that we should attend excellent universities
140
00:10:56,633 --> 00:11:01,505
and serve the country as technocrats,
141
00:11:01,505 --> 00:11:04,975
and so I decided to go to law school.
142
00:11:04,975 --> 00:11:09,680
It is important here to understand my country's history,
143
00:11:09,680 --> 00:11:15,953
and how we came to the place we were in 1965.
144
00:11:18,922 --> 00:11:21,124
Shirin Ebadi’s parents were born a century ago
145
00:11:21,124 --> 00:11:26,096
in a country that was known as Persia.
146
00:11:26,096 --> 00:11:28,065
For more than 2,000 years,
147
00:11:28,065 --> 00:11:30,534
Persia was a global hub of culture,
148
00:11:30,534 --> 00:11:33,670
science, art, and technology.
149
00:11:33,670 --> 00:11:37,374
Persians led the field of research in algebra and astronomy.
150
00:11:37,374 --> 00:11:40,544
They were inventors and innovators.
151
00:11:40,544 --> 00:11:43,647
They wrote the first book of modern medicine.
152
00:11:43,647 --> 00:11:46,116
For centuries, the latest in human thought
153
00:11:46,116 --> 00:11:48,352
and the finest in worldly goods
154
00:11:48,352 --> 00:11:52,789
traveled across this great realm.
155
00:11:52,789 --> 00:11:54,892
Slavery was forbidden
156
00:11:54,892 --> 00:11:58,562
and servants were required by law to be paid.
157
00:11:58,562 --> 00:12:00,731
And women had a more equal role
158
00:12:00,731 --> 00:12:03,000
than in most of the rest of the world.
159
00:12:03,000 --> 00:12:06,103
Women owned land, they owned businesses,
160
00:12:06,103 --> 00:12:10,841
they held professional positions.
161
00:12:10,841 --> 00:12:13,577
And, even the advent of the new religion of Islam,
162
00:12:13,577 --> 00:12:16,947
did little to change this underlying fundamental culture
163
00:12:16,947 --> 00:12:18,248
of Persia.
164
00:12:24,554 --> 00:12:28,458
Since I was a child, I had big dreams.
165
00:12:28,458 --> 00:12:33,697
I always believed that I would achieve my dreams.
166
00:12:33,697 --> 00:12:37,200
I am a Persian.
167
00:12:37,200 --> 00:12:40,070
A descendant of Cyrus the Great.
168
00:12:40,070 --> 00:12:45,742
The same Emperor, who 2,500 years ago stated that
169
00:12:45,742 --> 00:12:49,913
he would not rule over people who did not want him to.
170
00:12:49,913 --> 00:12:56,053
Cyrus never made anyone change their religion.
171
00:12:56,053 --> 00:12:58,422
More than 2,000 years ago, Cyrus
172
00:12:58,422 --> 00:13:01,792
the Great incorporated Babylon into his realm
173
00:13:01,792 --> 00:13:04,828
and an event unique in ancient history occurred.
174
00:13:06,697 --> 00:13:10,167
Cyrus the Great freed all of those who had been captured as
175
00:13:10,167 --> 00:13:13,603
slaves, including those who were Jews.
176
00:13:13,603 --> 00:13:15,806
The Bible gives a detailed account
177
00:13:15,806 --> 00:13:19,609
of his decree to end their long and painful Babylonian captivity,
178
00:13:19,609 --> 00:13:22,946
freeing them from slavery.
179
00:13:22,946 --> 00:13:25,615
Freedom of religion existed in all
180
00:13:25,615 --> 00:13:30,620
of the Persian Empire under his government.
181
00:13:30,620 --> 00:13:33,423
People enjoyed all kinds of freedom.
182
00:13:33,423 --> 00:13:37,127
The Human Rights Charter of Cyrus is the most important
183
00:13:37,127 --> 00:13:43,467
example of a Human Rights document in ancient history.
184
00:13:44,701 --> 00:13:45,869
In this way,
185
00:13:45,869 --> 00:13:49,272
Cyrus the Great built a multiethnic empire
186
00:13:49,272 --> 00:13:53,944
based on the principles contained in his charter.
187
00:13:53,944 --> 00:13:59,816
It became the largest empire that the ancient world had ever seen.
188
00:13:59,816 --> 00:14:02,886
People were allowed to keep their own religion and culture
189
00:14:02,886 --> 00:14:04,888
as long as they paid their yearly taxes
190
00:14:04,888 --> 00:14:06,390
to the king.
191
00:14:11,628 --> 00:14:17,334
Let me tell you an old story:
192
00:14:17,334 --> 00:14:23,774
God was in the seventh heaven
193
00:14:23,774 --> 00:14:29,312
and truth was a mirror in God’s hand.
194
00:14:29,312 --> 00:14:33,016
From the seventh heaven, the mirror fell down to earth,
195
00:14:33,016 --> 00:14:36,953
and broke into thousands of pieces,
196
00:14:36,953 --> 00:14:42,025
and each piece went into a house and to a different person.
197
00:14:42,025 --> 00:14:51,401
Thus truth is with everyone and everyone sees a part of truth.
198
00:14:51,401 --> 00:14:53,103
Cyrus the Great
199
00:14:53,103 --> 00:14:56,373
and other Persian Kings were disciples of the ancient religion
200
00:14:56,373 --> 00:14:59,709
Zoroastrianism.
201
00:14:59,709 --> 00:15:01,078
They believed in one God,
202
00:15:01,078 --> 00:15:03,613
in good and evil, in heaven and hell,
203
00:15:03,613 --> 00:15:06,450
and in a final judgment day.
204
00:15:06,450 --> 00:15:09,653
Zoroastrianism strongly influenced the way
205
00:15:09,653 --> 00:15:11,888
the Persians governed their empire.
206
00:15:12,322 --> 00:15:13,590
Persian King Darius
207
00:15:13,590 --> 00:15:16,593
the Great was inspired to create a grand city
208
00:15:16,593 --> 00:15:20,464
which embodied this cosmic balance . Persepolis.
209
00:15:20,464 --> 00:15:22,599
It was one of the greatest architectural
210
00:15:22,599 --> 00:15:25,502
achievements of the ancient world.
211
00:15:25,502 --> 00:15:27,337
From its gate of all the nations,
212
00:15:27,337 --> 00:15:30,640
to its Royal Terrace and Hall of Court,
213
00:15:30,640 --> 00:15:35,112
it was quite literally the richest city under the sun.
214
00:15:39,082 --> 00:15:41,218
When Alexander the Great burst forth
215
00:15:41,218 --> 00:15:45,355
from Macedonia to conquer the known world,
216
00:15:45,355 --> 00:15:47,023
he conquered all of Persia
217
00:15:47,023 --> 00:15:49,292
in just 12 short years,
218
00:15:49,292 --> 00:15:52,829
and he burned Persepolis to the ground.
219
00:15:54,898 --> 00:15:59,102
But he died when he was only 32 years old,
220
00:15:59,102 --> 00:16:01,571
and his generals then simply adopted the Persian system
221
00:16:01,571 --> 00:16:04,608
of governing the Empire, more or less.
222
00:16:04,608 --> 00:16:06,109
Yet years of infighting
223
00:16:06,109 --> 00:16:08,745
between these generals and their successors
224
00:16:08,745 --> 00:16:12,282
caused the empire to decline.
225
00:16:12,282 --> 00:16:15,785
Very soon, the next great Persian Empire, the Parthians,
226
00:16:15,785 --> 00:16:20,357
rose up and began to reclaim all of Persia's old territories.
227
00:16:22,959 --> 00:16:24,561
Early Persian culture
228
00:16:24,561 --> 00:16:27,164
reached its peak under the Sassanid empire,
229
00:16:27,164 --> 00:16:30,433
which lasted for 400 years.
230
00:16:30,433 --> 00:16:33,203
Persian rugs, roses, and perfume
231
00:16:33,203 --> 00:16:35,872
were the finest in the world.
232
00:16:35,872 --> 00:16:39,075
The first ceramics, the first orchestra,
233
00:16:39,075 --> 00:16:43,413
the game of polo, all came from Persia.
234
00:16:43,413 --> 00:16:46,183
And Persians continued to build the walled gardens
235
00:16:46,183 --> 00:16:48,885
that were invented by Cyrus the Great himself,
236
00:16:48,885 --> 00:16:52,355
using a water supply system called a qanat,
237
00:16:52,355 --> 00:16:54,524
which allowed a garden to be planted
238
00:16:54,524 --> 00:16:56,893
in a beautiful symphony of harmony.
239
00:16:56,893 --> 00:17:00,430
He called it a Pairi Daiza, and this word,
240
00:17:00,430 --> 00:17:06,469
once Westernized, became known worldwide as Paradise.
241
00:17:06,469 --> 00:17:14,711
Generally speaking, no society is absolutely ideal.
242
00:17:14,711 --> 00:17:21,017
There are problems everywhere, more or less,
243
00:17:21,017 --> 00:17:25,522
but the kinds of problems are different.
244
00:17:26,690 --> 00:17:28,959
When Shirin's grandparents were young,
245
00:17:28,959 --> 00:17:30,694
many in Persia,
246
00:17:30,694 --> 00:17:33,330
including the Muslim clerics, joined together
247
00:17:33,330 --> 00:17:34,798
to turn their country
248
00:17:34,798 --> 00:17:37,701
into a constitutional monarchy.
249
00:17:37,701 --> 00:17:40,337
One step closer to democracy
250
00:17:40,337 --> 00:17:41,605
and to the governing structure
251
00:17:41,605 --> 00:17:43,306
of other European countries
252
00:17:43,306 --> 00:17:44,874
where the main power rested
253
00:17:44,874 --> 00:17:47,310
with the parliament and prime minister.
254
00:17:47,310 --> 00:17:49,546
The king or the Shah,
255
00:17:49,546 --> 00:17:51,081
as it was known in Persia,
256
00:17:51,081 --> 00:17:52,749
the king became more
257
00:17:52,749 --> 00:17:55,318
of a ceremonial position.
258
00:17:55,318 --> 00:17:57,187
Then in 1909. .
259
00:17:57,187 --> 00:17:59,723
Oil was struck at last
260
00:17:59,723 --> 00:18:02,259
and drilling commenced.
261
00:18:02,259 --> 00:18:04,294
The great oil company was formed.
262
00:18:08,131 --> 00:18:12,002
A British company called Anglo Persian Oil controlled production,
263
00:18:12,002 --> 00:18:13,803
and for the next 50 years
264
00:18:13,803 --> 00:18:17,440
Persia’s oil refinery was the largest in the world,
265
00:18:17,440 --> 00:18:20,944
supplying all of the United Kingdom's petroleum needs.
266
00:18:23,179 --> 00:18:25,015
Tremendous and dramatic change
267
00:18:25,015 --> 00:18:27,651
came to the country of Persia as a result.
268
00:18:29,119 --> 00:18:29,953
Initially,
269
00:18:29,953 --> 00:18:32,222
only 16 % of the net profits
270
00:18:32,222 --> 00:18:34,724
from the oil went to the Persian people.
271
00:18:34,724 --> 00:18:37,460
84% of the wealth left the county.
272
00:18:42,966 --> 00:18:45,468
Twelve years before Shirin was born,
273
00:18:45,468 --> 00:18:48,371
Persia changed its name to Iran.
274
00:18:50,073 --> 00:18:51,074
Soon after,
275
00:18:51,074 --> 00:18:56,346
the Anglo Persian oil company became known as British Petroleum.
276
00:18:56,346 --> 00:18:59,683
Whatever happens in one part of the world
277
00:18:59,683 --> 00:19:02,152
affects other parts as well.
278
00:19:02,152 --> 00:19:04,487
If a small corner catches fire,
279
00:19:04,487 --> 00:19:08,124
it can spread to other parts.
280
00:19:08,124 --> 00:19:12,562
During World War Two, British troops occupied southern Iran
281
00:19:12,562 --> 00:19:15,332
in order to protect Britain's oil investment.
282
00:19:15,332 --> 00:19:18,535
And as the country struggled to recover from the war,
283
00:19:18,535 --> 00:19:22,138
a leading lawyer named Mohammad Mossadeqh,
284
00:19:22,138 --> 00:19:27,277
tried to negotiate a 50/50 split of oil profits with British Petroleum.
285
00:19:27,277 --> 00:19:29,245
But his offer was rejected.
286
00:19:29,245 --> 00:19:32,882
He became the first ever democratically elected Prime Minister
287
00:19:32,882 --> 00:19:34,150
in the history of Iran,
288
00:19:34,150 --> 00:19:37,487
and his parliament voted to nationalize the oil industry.
289
00:19:37,487 --> 00:19:40,523
To many, he was a national hero.
290
00:19:40,523 --> 00:19:42,625
But the retribution was swift.
291
00:19:42,625 --> 00:19:45,161
Within three years
292
00:19:45,161 --> 00:19:48,365
British and American intelligence agencies orchestrated a coup,
293
00:19:48,365 --> 00:19:50,233
a government takeover.
294
00:19:50,233 --> 00:19:51,935
And they brought back the Shah,
295
00:19:51,935 --> 00:19:54,771
who they thought they could control, in his place.
296
00:19:57,307 --> 00:20:01,644
From childhood, I fell in love with a phenomenon
297
00:20:01,644 --> 00:20:04,280
I later learned was justice.
298
00:20:04,280 --> 00:20:08,051
That is why I later became a student of law.
299
00:20:13,990 --> 00:20:18,995
Entering law school was a turning point in my life.
300
00:20:18,995 --> 00:20:23,600
Back then, political discussion was common in universities,
301
00:20:23,600 --> 00:20:28,905
but I was not really political.
302
00:20:28,905 --> 00:20:33,076
In the evenings, my friends and I
303
00:20:33,076 --> 00:20:34,544
used to go to the cafeteria
304
00:20:34,544 --> 00:20:36,780
and talk about the kinds of things
305
00:20:36,780 --> 00:20:40,049
that young people like to talk about.
306
00:20:42,919 --> 00:20:45,155
Students started to protest against the Shah
307
00:20:45,155 --> 00:20:47,957
in Tehran, Europe, and the USA.
308
00:20:47,957 --> 00:20:52,429
Students were always protesting.
309
00:20:52,429 --> 00:20:56,199
Sometimes, my friends and I would join in too.
310
00:20:56,933 --> 00:20:59,436
The Shah's modernization program
311
00:20:59,436 --> 00:21:03,506
created rapid urbanization and westernization.
312
00:21:03,506 --> 00:21:06,042
It also prompted concerns.
313
00:21:06,042 --> 00:21:09,078
Outlets for political participation were minimal
314
00:21:09,078 --> 00:21:11,981
and opposition parties were banned.
315
00:21:11,981 --> 00:21:14,951
Social protest was often met with harassment,
316
00:21:14,951 --> 00:21:18,154
and illegal detention and torture were commonplace
317
00:21:18,154 --> 00:21:21,958
under the SAVAK, the Shah's secret police force.
318
00:21:24,294 --> 00:21:28,498
Outwardly, with a swiftly expanding economy,
319
00:21:28,498 --> 00:21:31,034
everything seemed to be going well in Iran.
320
00:21:31,034 --> 00:21:32,569
But in reality,
321
00:21:32,569 --> 00:21:36,673
as the huge divide between rich and poor continued to grow,
322
00:21:36,673 --> 00:21:39,709
the Shah's autocracy began to be seen as corrupt
323
00:21:39,709 --> 00:21:43,213
and unjust to many of the people.
324
00:21:43,213 --> 00:21:47,984
And later, because of this feeling, I became a judge,
325
00:21:47,984 --> 00:21:52,655
as I thought I could help execute and bring about justice.
326
00:21:52,655 --> 00:21:55,258
I was proud of my profession.
327
00:21:55,258 --> 00:21:57,327
Every day I would wear a suit
328
00:21:57,327 --> 00:21:59,829
and heels not more than 2 inches high,
329
00:21:59,829 --> 00:22:06,336
and go to the Ministry of Justice.
330
00:22:06,336 --> 00:22:10,340
I had no issues in my new profession.
331
00:22:10,340 --> 00:22:15,812
The society had accepted me very well.
332
00:22:15,812 --> 00:22:20,083
I was one of the first women who became a Judge in Iran.
333
00:22:20,083 --> 00:22:24,053
Prior to that time, women did not have the right to become Judges.
334
00:22:24,053 --> 00:22:26,389
Also, I was promoted fast because
335
00:22:26,389 --> 00:22:29,125
I was at the top of the list of people
336
00:22:29,125 --> 00:22:32,262
who passed the Judgeship exams.
337
00:22:32,262 --> 00:22:36,399
Also, at the same time I had
338
00:22:36,399 --> 00:22:40,904
written a book on Criminal Law
339
00:22:40,904 --> 00:22:47,176
and enjoyed fame as a young Judge.
340
00:22:47,176 --> 00:22:50,947
At a later point of time, I became the
341
00:22:50,947 --> 00:22:54,984
presiding Judge of Tehran Municipal Courts.
342
00:22:54,984 --> 00:22:59,689
I was the youngest person to attain this position
343
00:22:59,689 --> 00:23:03,326
among both women and men that year.
344
00:23:03,326 --> 00:23:05,728
And that is when I met my husband.
345
00:23:05,728 --> 00:23:08,765
A friend introduced us to each other.
346
00:23:08,765 --> 00:23:12,135
Javad was a young and educated engineer.
347
00:23:12,135 --> 00:23:17,674
We went out a few times together.
348
00:23:17,674 --> 00:23:21,411
Then Javad proposed to me.
349
00:23:21,411 --> 00:23:28,017
I told him we have only known each other for a few months,
350
00:23:28,017 --> 00:23:33,323
we better think about it. He said fine, but how?
351
00:23:33,323 --> 00:23:36,459
I said, let’s stay away from each other for a month.
352
00:23:36,459 --> 00:23:39,095
Then, we will see how we feel.
353
00:23:39,095 --> 00:23:42,065
If we still liked each other
354
00:23:42,065 --> 00:23:44,067
then we would get married.
355
00:23:44,067 --> 00:23:48,538
The one month passed,
356
00:23:48,538 --> 00:23:51,841
and we agreed to get married.
357
00:23:51,841 --> 00:23:55,211
So, I chose my husband myself.
358
00:24:00,116 --> 00:24:05,555
That same year, 1974, the Shah made a fateful decision
359
00:24:05,555 --> 00:24:08,791
to push OPEC to raise oil prices dramatically.
360
00:24:08,791 --> 00:24:12,261
Western economies were hurt and gas lines formed.
361
00:24:12,261 --> 00:24:14,464
The Shah collected billions.
362
00:24:14,464 --> 00:24:16,499
In 1975,
363
00:24:16,499 --> 00:24:19,569
he declared that Iran was a one party state
364
00:24:19,569 --> 00:24:22,271
and banned all political parties other than his own.
365
00:24:22,271 --> 00:24:24,741
That made his dictatorship complete.
366
00:24:24,741 --> 00:24:27,377
He was the king of kings.
367
00:24:29,278 --> 00:24:33,383
Tanks rumble across the desert, as one of the world's strongest
368
00:24:33,383 --> 00:24:35,985
military powers flexes its armored muscle.
369
00:24:35,985 --> 00:24:37,687
The country is Iran,
370
00:24:37,687 --> 00:24:39,656
which hopes by the 1980’s
371
00:24:39,656 --> 00:24:42,358
to have the fourth largest armed forces in the world
372
00:24:42,358 --> 00:24:45,695
after the United States, the Soviet Union and China.
373
00:24:48,431 --> 00:24:49,999
You are Britain's
374
00:24:49,999 --> 00:24:52,201
biggest arms customer at the moment.
375
00:24:52,201 --> 00:24:54,404
Do you mean to keep it that way?
376
00:24:54,404 --> 00:24:59,409
If the world situation stays what it is
377
00:24:59,409 --> 00:25:01,177
we have no other choice.
378
00:25:01,177 --> 00:25:07,517
How effective is the cooperation that Britain is doing with Iran
379
00:25:07,517 --> 00:25:10,687
at the moment on military equipment?
380
00:25:10,687 --> 00:25:14,457
Well, I think it is very substantial.
381
00:25:14,457 --> 00:25:18,995
Most of our armor is British.
382
00:25:19,862 --> 00:25:21,397
Foreign advisers helped him
383
00:25:21,397 --> 00:25:24,901
craft a plan to use his billions for even faster growth,
384
00:25:24,901 --> 00:25:27,403
but it was too much, too soon.
385
00:25:27,403 --> 00:25:31,007
Inflation skyrocketed.
386
00:25:31,007 --> 00:25:34,010
A wave of rural workers were drawn to Tehran for jobs
387
00:25:34,010 --> 00:25:38,114
that did not exist.
388
00:25:38,114 --> 00:25:40,683
Factory workers and government employees
389
00:25:40,683 --> 00:25:42,985
went on strike for six months.
390
00:25:42,985 --> 00:25:45,154
The Shah declared martial law
391
00:25:45,154 --> 00:25:47,990
and his military opened fire on protesters
392
00:25:47,990 --> 00:25:51,594
during what became known as the Black Friday Massacre.
393
00:25:51,594 --> 00:25:54,630
Soon, the cries of “The Shah must go”
394
00:25:54,630 --> 00:25:57,533
changed to cries of “Death to the Shah”
395
00:25:57,533 --> 00:26:03,206
Before 1978 ordinary people did not know
396
00:26:03,206 --> 00:26:08,511
who Khomeini was.
397
00:26:08,511 --> 00:26:13,216
They were not familiar with Khomeini.
398
00:26:13,216 --> 00:26:17,353
Khomeini was a clergyman who was against the Shah.
399
00:26:17,353 --> 00:26:23,559
During this time he had issued a few open letters,
400
00:26:23,559 --> 00:26:26,429
that were read by religious people in mosques.
401
00:26:26,429 --> 00:26:31,901
Ordinary people did not read his declarations.
402
00:26:34,403 --> 00:26:37,340
Khomeini’s books were banned during the Shah's time.
403
00:26:37,340 --> 00:26:41,010
And if they were found in someone's home, they could be punished,
404
00:26:41,010 --> 00:26:42,378
imprisoned.
405
00:26:44,947 --> 00:26:48,351
At this time, Revolutionary voices picked up and
406
00:26:48,351 --> 00:26:53,856
Khomeini became the center of the Shah’s opposition,
407
00:26:53,856 --> 00:26:56,826
specifically, among Iranian students
408
00:26:56,826 --> 00:27:00,329
who studied abroad.
409
00:27:03,966 --> 00:27:05,468
Many of these young supporters
410
00:27:05,468 --> 00:27:09,672
gathered around him and demanded that he be resettled in France,
411
00:27:09,672 --> 00:27:13,075
and this move to France resulted in more widespread
412
00:27:13,075 --> 00:27:16,846
communication of Khomeini’s words.
413
00:27:16,846 --> 00:27:21,117
Going to France resulted in the increase
414
00:27:21,117 --> 00:27:24,520
of Khomeini's profile.
415
00:27:26,956 --> 00:27:31,027
His declarations came to Iran on a daily basis,
416
00:27:31,027 --> 00:27:35,598
so more and more people got to know him.
417
00:27:35,598 --> 00:27:37,967
We were being promised that we would gain
418
00:27:37,967 --> 00:27:40,203
independence and freedom
419
00:27:40,203 --> 00:27:42,405
in the Islamic Republic.
420
00:27:42,405 --> 00:27:44,941
And the words that Mr. Khomeini uttered
421
00:27:44,941 --> 00:27:49,879
before coming to Iran were very charming.
422
00:27:50,947 --> 00:27:55,151
He said everyone is free, women are equal,
423
00:27:55,151 --> 00:27:56,719
and many other good things.
424
00:27:56,719 --> 00:28:02,024
We used to protest and march every day.
425
00:28:02,792 --> 00:28:05,228
Iranians from every strata of society
426
00:28:05,228 --> 00:28:08,264
were shouting, “Down with the Shah”
427
00:28:08,264 --> 00:28:15,171
When there is injustice, and no way of receiving justice, and
428
00:28:15,171 --> 00:28:21,510
when several generations live in poverty and there is no hope
429
00:28:21,510 --> 00:28:24,046
for the improvement of their lives,
430
00:28:24,046 --> 00:28:31,254
out of hopelessness, they can forgo logic and resort to violence.
431
00:28:31,254 --> 00:28:41,030
Khomeini, Khomeini, we're waiting for you.
432
00:29:29,979 --> 00:29:32,682
Chaos reigned in the streets of Iran.
433
00:29:32,682 --> 00:29:35,518
And in January of 1979,
434
00:29:35,518 --> 00:29:39,288
the Shah abruptly left the country.
435
00:29:39,288 --> 00:29:43,526
I am happy, so very happy,
436
00:29:43,526 --> 00:29:46,595
the Shah left Iran, the Shah left Iran.
437
00:29:46,595 --> 00:29:48,998
I'm terribly delighted.
438
00:29:48,998 --> 00:29:50,433
This is something that Iranians
439
00:29:50,433 --> 00:29:51,968
have been waiting for for many, many years.
440
00:29:51,968 --> 00:29:55,137
And today you can see the reaction, this is the reaction of people
441
00:29:55,137 --> 00:29:58,407
who are just overwhelmed by what has happened.
442
00:29:58,407 --> 00:30:00,042
What is the meaning of this?
443
00:30:00,042 --> 00:30:02,178
The meaning is that they're hoping that
444
00:30:02,178 --> 00:30:04,447
they will be a free country from now on.
445
00:30:04,447 --> 00:30:07,049
They're hoping, you know, the US support of the Shah
446
00:30:07,049 --> 00:30:12,188
has not had any effect. So, you can see it.
447
00:30:12,188 --> 00:30:13,889
Are you a student or a teacher?
448
00:30:13,889 --> 00:30:15,891
No. No. I'm just a businessman.
449
00:30:15,891 --> 00:30:18,160
I'm an Iranian. But also, a businessman.
450
00:30:18,160 --> 00:30:20,196
Have you ever seen anything like this in your life?
451
00:30:20,196 --> 00:30:21,998
No, never. And I wished,
452
00:30:21,998 --> 00:30:25,901
I always wished I would be living when I see today like this.
453
00:30:25,901 --> 00:30:34,010
The Shah has defected! The Shah has defected!
454
00:30:34,010 --> 00:30:39,348
Two weeks later, Ayatollah Khomeini flew to Iran.
455
00:30:54,864 --> 00:30:58,134
And he appointed a pro-democracy leader
456
00:30:58,134 --> 00:31:02,171
to act as interim Prime Minister.
457
00:31:02,171 --> 00:31:04,940
Suddenly everything seemed possible.
458
00:31:04,940 --> 00:31:07,376
Books that had been banned were being printed,
459
00:31:07,376 --> 00:31:10,613
and there was fervent talk of constitutional reform.
460
00:31:10,613 --> 00:31:13,082
But there was a dark side as well.
461
00:31:13,082 --> 00:31:16,385
One man who has been taking firm action
462
00:31:16,385 --> 00:31:17,887
is the Ayatollah Khalkhali.
463
00:31:17,887 --> 00:31:20,489
It was he who announced he was sending armed guerrillas
464
00:31:20,489 --> 00:31:22,958
on a mission to assassinate the Shah in his exile.
465
00:31:22,958 --> 00:31:26,395
He is also the power behind the Islamic revolutionary courts
466
00:31:26,395 --> 00:31:29,965
held in the mosques which have dominated Iran
467
00:31:29,965 --> 00:31:30,900
since the revolution.
468
00:31:39,475 --> 00:31:40,676
At this Islamic court in Tehran,
469
00:31:40,676 --> 00:31:42,912
the chief defendant was a former officer
470
00:31:42,912 --> 00:31:45,214
of the SAVAK, the Shah's secret police,
471
00:31:45,214 --> 00:31:49,285
on various murder and torture charges.
472
00:31:49,285 --> 00:31:51,720
The trial was held in the mosque
473
00:31:51,720 --> 00:31:53,622
of Tehran's largest prison, the Casa.
474
00:31:53,622 --> 00:31:56,892
The proceedings were started with a recitation from the Koran
475
00:31:56,892 --> 00:32:01,063
and three Muslim clergy were presiding.
476
00:32:01,063 --> 00:32:03,132
The defendant confesses his crimes
477
00:32:03,132 --> 00:32:05,868
while insisting that he had to act under orders,
478
00:32:05,868 --> 00:32:10,539
but a death sentence is widely expected.
479
00:32:13,776 --> 00:32:14,877
Outside in the prison grounds,
480
00:32:14,877 --> 00:32:17,780
the public can examine the grim instruments of torture
481
00:32:17,780 --> 00:32:20,783
once used by the secret police and nearby,
482
00:32:20,783 --> 00:32:23,953
the simple graves of former Shah officials already
483
00:32:23,953 --> 00:32:27,690
executed after going before the revolutionary court.
484
00:32:27,690 --> 00:32:30,526
There have been over 300 executions since the court
485
00:32:30,559 --> 00:32:31,694
started in February,
486
00:32:31,694 --> 00:32:35,131
mostly for murder and torture of political opponents of the Shah.
487
00:32:35,131 --> 00:32:37,600
And more executions are expected.
488
00:32:37,600 --> 00:32:40,269
A line of fresh graves lies waiting.
489
00:32:44,206 --> 00:32:46,942
Many people wanted to act fast
490
00:32:46,942 --> 00:32:50,379
to reform the Constitution.
491
00:32:50,379 --> 00:32:53,616
But then, in a surprising announcement,
492
00:32:53,616 --> 00:32:55,417
Ayatollah Khomeini declared
493
00:32:55,417 --> 00:32:59,188
that he had already drafted the new constitution himself,
494
00:32:59,188 --> 00:33:01,423
one designed to take Iran in a different direction,
495
00:33:01,423 --> 00:33:04,994
to become what he called an Islamic Republic.
496
00:33:04,994 --> 00:33:08,230
What do they mean exactly?
497
00:33:08,230 --> 00:33:11,333
We still don't know, I mean we don't always know.
498
00:33:11,333 --> 00:33:13,536
I am Muslim. I know a little bit about Islam
499
00:33:13,536 --> 00:33:15,504
certainly, like any other Muslim.
500
00:33:15,504 --> 00:33:17,773
But, you know it depends very much about
501
00:33:17,773 --> 00:33:21,944
how they are going, how, who is going to interpret
502
00:33:21,944 --> 00:33:25,581
what in relation to that and that article,
503
00:33:25,581 --> 00:33:29,385
the limitations of Islam are.
504
00:33:29,385 --> 00:33:30,953
Within six months,
505
00:33:30,953 --> 00:33:32,955
national elections were held
506
00:33:32,955 --> 00:33:35,824
and his new constitution was adopted.
507
00:33:35,824 --> 00:33:37,927
I just vote for Imam.
508
00:33:37,927 --> 00:33:38,894
Because he said yes.
509
00:33:38,894 --> 00:33:40,296
And I should follow him.
510
00:33:40,296 --> 00:33:42,965
That's my only thing, yes.
511
00:33:42,965 --> 00:33:43,832
You trust?
512
00:33:43,832 --> 00:33:45,334
Yes, I trust him, yes.
513
00:33:46,001 --> 00:33:47,203
The former Shah,
514
00:33:47,203 --> 00:33:49,238
who was suffering from cancer,
515
00:33:49,238 --> 00:33:53,209
sought refuge in the USA for cancer treatment.
516
00:33:55,578 --> 00:33:57,346
A huge gang of young men
517
00:33:57,346 --> 00:34:01,183
reacted with rage and stormed the U. S. embassy,
518
00:34:01,183 --> 00:34:05,688
taking the staff hostage.
519
00:34:05,688 --> 00:34:09,758
The interim Prime Minister and his entire cabinet resigned in protest
520
00:34:09,758 --> 00:34:12,294
when Ayatollah Khomeini decided to support
521
00:34:12,294 --> 00:34:15,130
the taking of American hostages.
522
00:34:15,130 --> 00:34:17,566
And by December of 1979,
523
00:34:17,566 --> 00:34:23,172
Iran was firmly in the hands of the hardline clerics.
524
00:34:23,172 --> 00:34:26,842
My first shock after the Revolution happened,
525
00:34:26,842 --> 00:34:29,044
a few months after the Revolution,
526
00:34:29,044 --> 00:34:31,146
I was sitting at my desk in my courtroom
527
00:34:31,146 --> 00:34:32,748
when the Personnel Office messenger
528
00:34:32,748 --> 00:34:36,285
gave me an envelope. I opened it and saw
529
00:34:36,285 --> 00:34:39,655
I had lost my judgeship.
530
00:34:39,655 --> 00:34:44,026
At that time there were about 50 women Judges in Iran.
531
00:34:44,026 --> 00:34:46,996
We were all demoted to administrative positions.
532
00:34:46,996 --> 00:34:49,498
I was demoted to the position of clerk
533
00:34:49,498 --> 00:34:52,735
of the same courtroom that I had presided over.
534
00:34:52,735 --> 00:34:56,472
My only crime was that I was a woman.
535
00:34:56,472 --> 00:34:58,173
Seven months later,
536
00:34:58,173 --> 00:35:01,510
Iran's old enemy, Iraq,
537
00:35:01,510 --> 00:35:04,813
under the leadership of dictator Saddam Hussein,
538
00:35:04,813 --> 00:35:08,951
decided to take advantage of the tumultuous change taking place.
539
00:35:08,951 --> 00:35:12,021
Saddam Hussein's army invaded Iran.
540
00:35:12,021 --> 00:35:15,024
Ayatollah Khomeini called on the entire nation of Iran
541
00:35:15,024 --> 00:35:18,627
to mobilize, calling it “the sacred defense”
542
00:35:18,627 --> 00:35:21,864
Iraq had the greater military force.
543
00:35:21,864 --> 00:35:23,432
Khomeini’s Revolutionary Guard
544
00:35:23,432 --> 00:35:26,502
had decimated the Shah's former Army leadership
545
00:35:26,502 --> 00:35:29,405
through execution and imprisonment.
546
00:35:29,405 --> 00:35:31,273
But Iran had a population
547
00:35:31,273 --> 00:35:33,876
that was three times as large as Iraq.
548
00:35:33,876 --> 00:35:37,179
Untrained but passionate young volunteers,
549
00:35:37,179 --> 00:35:40,616
some as young as 12 years old, came forward from across
550
00:35:40,616 --> 00:35:43,118
Iran to defend their homeland.
551
00:35:43,118 --> 00:35:45,487
They joined the Basij volunteer force
552
00:35:45,487 --> 00:35:48,524
and they were used as human waves.
553
00:35:48,524 --> 00:35:51,327
By the end of the war, 95,000
554
00:35:51,327 --> 00:35:58,467
Iranian child soldiers were martyred for the cause.
555
00:35:58,467 --> 00:35:59,802
In that same year,
556
00:35:59,802 --> 00:36:05,808
Sharia law was implemented in Iran.
557
00:36:05,808 --> 00:36:10,012
I first read the law in a newspaper.
558
00:36:10,012 --> 00:36:13,749
I did not believe what I was reading.
559
00:36:13,749 --> 00:36:19,555
I thought maybe I had made a mistake. I started reading it again.
560
00:36:19,555 --> 00:36:22,458
Then I thought maybe they were not clear
561
00:36:22,458 --> 00:36:25,527
about what they were trying to do.
562
00:36:28,097 --> 00:36:29,898
So, I read it for a third time and
563
00:36:29,898 --> 00:36:34,937
I realized, what I was reading was exactly what they meant.
564
00:36:34,937 --> 00:36:39,274
They passed this bill into law.
565
00:36:39,274 --> 00:36:40,476
In 1982,
566
00:36:40,476 --> 00:36:43,379
Saddam Hussein offered a truce.
567
00:36:43,379 --> 00:36:46,749
Ayatollah Khomeini vowed to fight on, to invade Iraq
568
00:36:46,749 --> 00:36:51,420
and to turn that country into an Islamic Republic as well.
569
00:36:51,420 --> 00:36:55,858
Now that I saw the results of the Revolution,
570
00:36:55,858 --> 00:36:58,394
I can say that I really regretted it.
571
00:36:58,394 --> 00:37:03,699
The nation of Iran made a big mistake.
572
00:37:03,699 --> 00:37:07,503
Life during the eight year long Iran-Iraq war
573
00:37:07,503 --> 00:37:09,805
was terrifying and tragic.
574
00:37:09,805 --> 00:37:13,442
Iraq began what it called “the war of the cities”
575
00:37:13,442 --> 00:37:16,945
with random shelling of all of the major cities of Iran,
576
00:37:16,945 --> 00:37:22,284
people running for shelter as bombs fell out of the night sky.
577
00:37:22,284 --> 00:37:23,986
Wave after wave of young men
578
00:37:23,986 --> 00:37:26,288
continued to be used as cannon fodder
579
00:37:26,288 --> 00:37:28,624
to clear the fields full of landmines.
580
00:37:32,394 --> 00:37:36,231
Saddam Hussein violated international law repeatedly
581
00:37:36,231 --> 00:37:38,233
by using chemical weapons to attack
582
00:37:38,233 --> 00:37:40,903
both soldiers and civilians.
583
00:37:40,903 --> 00:37:43,439
And when the war ended, not one inch of
584
00:37:43,439 --> 00:37:46,742
territory had been gained by either side,
585
00:37:46,742 --> 00:37:49,344
at a cost of 350 billion dollars,
586
00:37:49,344 --> 00:37:54,516
and at a cost of more than one million lives.
587
00:37:55,784 --> 00:38:03,625
We must acquaint young people with the realities of the world,
588
00:38:03,625 --> 00:38:10,899
even if these realities are not pretty.
589
00:38:10,899 --> 00:38:15,737
We must tell them what war means
590
00:38:15,737 --> 00:38:21,577
and how far into the future the damages of war will affect us.
591
00:38:22,611 --> 00:38:25,747
And yet, during those wartime years,
592
00:38:25,747 --> 00:38:28,951
there were still some moments of sweetness.
593
00:38:28,951 --> 00:38:31,153
Shirin's first daughter, Negar,
594
00:38:31,153 --> 00:38:33,222
was born in 1980.
595
00:38:33,222 --> 00:38:35,491
Her second daughter, Nargess,
596
00:38:35,491 --> 00:38:37,693
was born in 1983.
597
00:38:37,693 --> 00:38:39,461
And just one day after her
598
00:38:39,461 --> 00:38:42,865
required 15 years of government service was completed,
599
00:38:42,865 --> 00:38:45,300
Shirin applied for early retirement from her
600
00:38:45,300 --> 00:38:48,237
sham job as a clerk.
601
00:38:48,237 --> 00:38:51,607
She began to spend more of her time on a dusty plot of land
602
00:38:51,607 --> 00:38:55,077
that she and her husband had purchased soon after their wedding,
603
00:38:55,077 --> 00:38:58,247
planting rows and rows of fruit bearing trees
604
00:38:58,247 --> 00:38:59,915
and the sweet smelling night blooming
605
00:38:59,915 --> 00:39:02,885
jasmine of her childhood.
606
00:39:02,885 --> 00:39:04,019
Over time,
607
00:39:04,019 --> 00:39:08,323
they transformed it into an orchard, a refuge of their own,
608
00:39:08,323 --> 00:39:11,994
far, far away on the outskirts of Tehran.
609
00:39:11,994 --> 00:39:14,663
Here, they would gather for family celebrations
610
00:39:14,663 --> 00:39:17,065
and watch their daughters grow.
611
00:39:17,065 --> 00:39:22,204
This is when I said to myself I should do something.
612
00:39:22,204 --> 00:39:26,074
What worried me most was that the younger generation,
613
00:39:26,074 --> 00:39:28,310
including my daughters,
614
00:39:28,310 --> 00:39:34,316
were going to ask me, "What did you do for us?"
615
00:39:34,316 --> 00:39:37,185
From the beginning of the Revolution,
616
00:39:37,185 --> 00:39:41,456
I had lost hope and changed my path.
617
00:39:41,456 --> 00:39:48,196
But, that was not enough for me.
618
00:39:48,196 --> 00:39:51,867
I had to rectify my mistakes.
619
00:39:51,867 --> 00:39:59,441
I need to say I did not belong to any political party or group.
620
00:39:59,441 --> 00:40:03,579
However, like millions of Iranians I participated
621
00:40:03,579 --> 00:40:09,451
in the rallies and shouted “Long live Khomeini”
622
00:40:09,451 --> 00:40:14,189
This was a mistake. Therefore, I had to rectify my mistake.
623
00:40:14,189 --> 00:40:20,495
As a result I decided to open my Law Office,
624
00:40:20,495 --> 00:40:25,934
and focused on defending victims of Human Rights violations.
625
00:40:25,934 --> 00:40:30,005
My work was pro bono.
626
00:40:30,005 --> 00:40:32,841
When the Islamic Revolution came about and said a woman
627
00:40:32,841 --> 00:40:35,911
could no longer be a judge,
628
00:40:35,911 --> 00:40:39,147
I changed my job, and became a lawyer.
629
00:40:39,147 --> 00:40:41,249
This same motivation encouraged me
630
00:40:41,249 --> 00:40:44,186
to become active in defending human rights.
631
00:40:44,886 --> 00:40:48,557
The tragic gang rape and murder of a 14 year old girl
632
00:40:48,557 --> 00:40:49,992
hit Shirin hard.
633
00:40:49,992 --> 00:40:54,196
She wasn't able to win justice for the victim or her family.
634
00:40:54,196 --> 00:40:57,332
Whenever I think that
635
00:40:57,332 --> 00:41:02,738
justice has not been done, I feel a wound in my heart.
636
00:41:02,738 --> 00:41:04,740
Shirin decided that she was
637
00:41:04,740 --> 00:41:06,942
going to also focus on the rights of children
638
00:41:06,942 --> 00:41:09,244
and of women.
639
00:41:09,244 --> 00:41:13,248
With the help of a few friends,
640
00:41:13,248 --> 00:41:18,220
I created a foundation to defend children.
641
00:41:18,220 --> 00:41:21,523
Soon, they were asked to take on an explosive case,
642
00:41:21,523 --> 00:41:23,225
the death of eight year old
643
00:41:23,225 --> 00:41:24,926
Arian Golshani.
644
00:41:26,962 --> 00:41:29,031
There were burn marks on Arian's body.
645
00:41:29,031 --> 00:41:30,799
Her skull was fractured,
646
00:41:30,799 --> 00:41:35,037
her arms were broken, and she weighed only 35 pounds.
647
00:41:35,037 --> 00:41:37,372
She had been killed by her father.
648
00:41:37,372 --> 00:41:39,675
Under Iranian law,
649
00:41:39,675 --> 00:41:42,878
the husband got custody of any child after a divorce.
650
00:41:42,878 --> 00:41:45,414
So the court gave Arian to her father,
651
00:41:45,414 --> 00:41:47,749
even though he was a convicted criminal,
652
00:41:47,749 --> 00:41:50,752
even though her mother fought for custody of Arian,
653
00:41:50,752 --> 00:41:53,355
documenting his abuse of the little girl.
654
00:41:53,355 --> 00:41:55,257
Shirin and her fellow lawyers
655
00:41:55,257 --> 00:41:59,528
held a funeral for Arian before the trial.
656
00:41:59,528 --> 00:42:00,929
At the end of the funeral
657
00:42:00,929 --> 00:42:03,031
they each took a flier with the tragic
658
00:42:03,031 --> 00:42:05,434
details out into the streets of Tehran
659
00:42:05,434 --> 00:42:07,903
to let others know what had happened.
660
00:42:07,903 --> 00:42:10,272
The courtroom was packed with women
661
00:42:10,272 --> 00:42:13,875
who showed up in solidarity with Arian's mother.
662
00:42:13,875 --> 00:42:16,144
You, the disgrace of all fathers in the world!
663
00:42:16,144 --> 00:42:18,914
The trial ended with a conviction of murder.
664
00:42:18,914 --> 00:42:23,819
Truly, the law has to be changed!
665
00:42:23,819 --> 00:42:25,721
And under pressure
666
00:42:25,721 --> 00:42:27,122
from women across the country,
667
00:42:27,122 --> 00:42:29,791
Iran's parliament decided to change the law.
668
00:42:29,791 --> 00:42:30,692
A court can no
669
00:42:30,692 --> 00:42:33,495
longer automatically give custody of a child
670
00:42:33,495 --> 00:42:35,764
to an unfit father.
671
00:42:35,764 --> 00:42:43,705
Because children are vulnerable
672
00:42:43,705 --> 00:42:50,779
and cannot defend themselves like an adult can,
673
00:42:50,779 --> 00:42:56,518
they need more care.
674
00:42:56,518 --> 00:43:00,088
Shirin’s Society for Protecting the Rights of the Child
675
00:43:00,088 --> 00:43:03,525
opened free schools for street children in Tehran
676
00:43:03,525 --> 00:43:06,228
because these children are some of the most vulnerable.
677
00:43:06,228 --> 00:43:08,797
All of the teachers are volunteers.
678
00:43:10,265 --> 00:43:12,701
Shirin decided to open a new foundation,
679
00:43:12,701 --> 00:43:16,872
the Center for the Defense of Human Rights.
680
00:43:16,872 --> 00:43:19,875
Approximately thirty attorneys joined us.
681
00:43:19,875 --> 00:43:24,212
We all defended victims of Human Rights violations for free.
682
00:43:24,212 --> 00:43:27,916
At that time the number of my cases had risen
683
00:43:27,916 --> 00:43:31,153
to the extent that I personally could not take care
684
00:43:31,153 --> 00:43:35,257
of all of them and my colleagues helped me.
685
00:43:35,791 --> 00:43:36,892
Soon, Shirin
686
00:43:36,892 --> 00:43:40,328
and her colleagues were asked to take on a dangerous case.
687
00:43:40,328 --> 00:43:42,697
Two leading intellectuals and dissidents in Iran
688
00:43:42,697 --> 00:43:45,033
were murdered in their home, in the first
689
00:43:45,033 --> 00:43:48,203
of what became known as the “Chain Murders”
690
00:43:48,203 --> 00:43:51,473
Within months, their daughter asked Shirin to represent her
691
00:43:51,473 --> 00:43:54,309
and to try to find some sort of justice.
692
00:43:54,309 --> 00:43:56,344
What I
693
00:43:56,344 --> 00:44:01,082
and the Forouhar family want to know is,
694
00:44:01,082 --> 00:44:02,717
Who
695
00:44:02,717 --> 00:44:05,887
and for what purpose had ordered
696
00:44:05,887 --> 00:44:10,125
the killing of the Forouhars and others like them?
697
00:44:10,692 --> 00:44:12,360
An employee
698
00:44:12,360 --> 00:44:14,329
of the Iranian Ministry of Intelligence was arrested
699
00:44:14,329 --> 00:44:15,964
and charged with committing the murder.
700
00:44:15,964 --> 00:44:19,701
But before the trial could begin, he committed suicide in jail,
701
00:44:19,701 --> 00:44:22,671
supposedly, by drinking hair removal cream.
702
00:44:22,671 --> 00:44:26,308
Shirin showed the court dozens of bottles of hair removal cream
703
00:44:26,308 --> 00:44:29,511
she and her staff had collected from stores across Tehran.
704
00:44:29,511 --> 00:44:31,279
None of them was toxic.
705
00:44:31,279 --> 00:44:35,851
We were not interested in two or three
706
00:44:35,851 --> 00:44:40,789
junior officials of the Ministry of Intelligence.
707
00:44:40,789 --> 00:44:44,860
They were carrying out orders.
708
00:44:44,860 --> 00:44:47,395
They had permission to kill.
709
00:44:47,395 --> 00:44:50,565
It was important to find out who had permitted
710
00:44:50,565 --> 00:44:53,935
the killings and why.
711
00:44:53,935 --> 00:44:55,503
The “Chain Murders”
712
00:44:55,503 --> 00:44:57,939
of leading dissidents and intellectuals continued
713
00:44:57,939 --> 00:44:59,140
to occur.
714
00:45:00,942 --> 00:45:03,044
In the summer of 1999,
715
00:45:03,044 --> 00:45:06,081
there was a public backlash.
716
00:45:06,081 --> 00:45:07,849
University students in Tehran
717
00:45:07,849 --> 00:45:09,951
began to protest the closing of a liberal newspaper
718
00:45:09,951 --> 00:45:12,254
that had continued to report about the so-called
719
00:45:12,254 --> 00:45:14,823
“Chain Murders” of leading dissidents in Iran.
720
00:45:14,823 --> 00:45:18,393
Security forces and parliamentary vigilantes retaliated yesterday
721
00:45:18,393 --> 00:45:21,062
during a nighttime raid on a student dormitory.
722
00:45:21,062 --> 00:45:23,098
Many protesters were seriously injured
723
00:45:23,098 --> 00:45:26,201
and one student was killed.
724
00:45:29,404 --> 00:45:31,172
The family of the murdered student
725
00:45:31,172 --> 00:45:33,441
asked Shirin to represent them.
726
00:45:33,441 --> 00:45:35,377
She was able to secure a videotape
727
00:45:35,377 --> 00:45:38,680
which recorded the confession of the man who had killed him.
728
00:45:38,680 --> 00:45:41,316
But the court completely rejected his testimony,
729
00:45:41,316 --> 00:45:43,151
calling it false.
730
00:45:43,151 --> 00:45:49,357
I was the attorney for a student protestor who was killed,
731
00:45:49,357 --> 00:45:54,029
and when I introduced a new witness to the court,
732
00:45:54,029 --> 00:45:58,400
both the witness and myself ended up in jail.
733
00:45:58,400 --> 00:46:03,038
I was in jail for 25 days and during the entire period,
734
00:46:03,038 --> 00:46:07,342
I was in solitary confinement.
735
00:46:07,342 --> 00:46:10,545
My cell was so small that if I would have been taller,
736
00:46:10,545 --> 00:46:14,282
I wouldn't have been able to lay down in it.
737
00:46:14,282 --> 00:46:18,820
There was only one lightbulb and it was on for 24 hours a day.
738
00:46:18,820 --> 00:46:22,991
It had no windows at all.
739
00:46:22,991 --> 00:46:25,627
And I was not able to tell
740
00:46:25,627 --> 00:46:29,531
if it was daytime or nighttime.
741
00:46:29,531 --> 00:46:35,136
And I had no access to radio, television, or newspapers
742
00:46:35,136 --> 00:46:43,878
and I could not receive visitors or legal counsel.
743
00:46:43,878 --> 00:46:52,487
Being in total isolation was extremely difficult to endure.
744
00:46:53,688 --> 00:46:55,857
Human rights organizations around the world
745
00:46:55,857 --> 00:46:58,126
continued to denounce the “Chain Murders”
746
00:46:58,126 --> 00:47:00,095
In the spring of 2000,
747
00:47:00,095 --> 00:47:03,832
in an unprecedented move, the government launched
748
00:47:03,832 --> 00:47:06,868
an internal investigation and soon admitted
749
00:47:06,868 --> 00:47:08,903
partial complicity in the killings.
750
00:47:08,903 --> 00:47:11,773
Six months later, the lawyers representing
751
00:47:11,773 --> 00:47:14,743
the “Chain Murder” victims were given 10 days
752
00:47:14,743 --> 00:47:17,946
to read the investigation's findings.
753
00:47:17,946 --> 00:47:19,481
There were stacks and stacks
754
00:47:19,481 --> 00:47:22,183
of documents. And in one of those files,
755
00:47:22,183 --> 00:47:26,154
Shirin found a sentence that would haunt her for years to come.
756
00:47:26,154 --> 00:47:28,323
“The next person to be killed
757
00:47:28,323 --> 00:47:32,694
is Shirin Ebadi. ”
758
00:47:32,694 --> 00:47:34,662
Only the holy month of Ramadan,
759
00:47:34,662 --> 00:47:38,700
when it is forbidden to kill, postponed her assassination.
760
00:47:38,700 --> 00:47:41,236
Only a decision by the Iranian government
761
00:47:41,236 --> 00:47:43,438
to arrest one of their own employees
762
00:47:43,438 --> 00:47:45,740
and to blame him for all of the killings,
763
00:47:45,740 --> 00:47:49,544
saved Shirin from being the next victim of the “Chain Murders”
764
00:47:49,544 --> 00:47:51,880
She had narrowly escaped danger,
765
00:47:51,880 --> 00:47:53,381
once again.
766
00:47:56,518 --> 00:48:01,056
Shirin’s fame as a leading expert on Islamic law continued to grow.
767
00:48:01,056 --> 00:48:04,092
She continued to give lectures on the subject in Iran
768
00:48:04,092 --> 00:48:06,294
and now in Europe as well.
769
00:48:06,294 --> 00:48:09,397
In 2001, she was honored by Norway's
770
00:48:09,397 --> 00:48:11,666
Rafto Foundation for Human Rights
771
00:48:11,666 --> 00:48:13,668
for her courageous work in the field.
772
00:48:13,668 --> 00:48:16,871
She caught the attention of the Norwegian Nobel Committee.
773
00:48:16,871 --> 00:48:20,208
And in 2003, at a legal conference in Paris,
774
00:48:20,208 --> 00:48:22,577
she received some incredible news.
775
00:48:22,577 --> 00:48:26,548
She had just been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
776
00:48:26,548 --> 00:48:30,852
When I got back home to Iran, and entered the airport,
777
00:48:30,852 --> 00:48:32,987
suddenly I realized that a vast number of Iranians
778
00:48:32,987 --> 00:48:36,024
had come to welcome me.
779
00:48:36,024 --> 00:48:38,893
The crowd was so large that
780
00:48:38,893 --> 00:48:41,329
it was simply not possible
781
00:48:41,329 --> 00:48:48,903
for me to go through the crowd.
782
00:48:48,903 --> 00:48:55,844
I thanked and thanked them while I was on the platform.
783
00:48:55,844 --> 00:48:57,545
The most beautiful scene I witnessed,
784
00:48:57,545 --> 00:49:00,448
was some of the street kids from our program
785
00:49:00,448 --> 00:49:04,385
who came to sing and play their music.
786
00:49:04,385 --> 00:49:08,256
And when I saw this, I couldn't stop crying.
787
00:49:08,256 --> 00:49:11,493
Many people were crying and congratulating me.
788
00:49:11,493 --> 00:49:15,964
It was clear to me, that the Nobel Prize I won
789
00:49:15,964 --> 00:49:20,101
actually gave the Iranian people a national pride.
790
00:49:20,101 --> 00:49:32,247
Long live Ebadi!
791
00:49:34,349 --> 00:49:37,318
The government of Iran denounced the decision
792
00:49:37,318 --> 00:49:42,924
of the Nobel Peace Prize Foundation, calling it “political”
793
00:49:42,924 --> 00:49:48,062
People used to tell me that the name of Iran
794
00:49:48,062 --> 00:49:50,732
has been associated with bad news in the past.
795
00:49:50,732 --> 00:49:55,703
This is the first time that the name of Iran was being associated
796
00:49:55,703 --> 00:50:00,775
with an accomplishment, one that people took so much pride in.
797
00:50:04,512 --> 00:50:09,083
Shirin Ebadi was the first Muslim woman
798
00:50:09,083 --> 00:50:19,961
and the only Iranian to ever win the Nobel Peace Prize.
799
00:50:19,961 --> 00:50:21,162
Her only regret was that her
800
00:50:21,162 --> 00:50:24,365
father was not alive to share this moment with her.
801
00:50:24,365 --> 00:50:27,035
He passed away 10 years before she won
802
00:50:27,035 --> 00:50:30,538
the Nobel Peace Prize.
803
00:50:30,538 --> 00:50:35,210
I lost a person who always supported me.
804
00:50:35,210 --> 00:50:38,980
He always protected me.
805
00:50:38,980 --> 00:50:42,217
It took me a while to find myself again.
806
00:50:42,217 --> 00:50:46,187
I thought the world had come to an end.
807
00:50:46,187 --> 00:50:54,229
But my two little girls helped me find myself again.
808
00:50:54,229 --> 00:51:01,102
I concluded that my father would not be happy to see me
809
00:51:01,102 --> 00:51:05,273
in that condition if he were alive.
810
00:51:05,273 --> 00:51:11,346
My father was a very strong man.
811
00:51:11,346 --> 00:51:15,617
He did not like to see us weak and desperate.
812
00:51:15,617 --> 00:51:24,525
So for the happiness of his spirit, I had to get up.
813
00:51:24,525 --> 00:51:28,529
When I won the Nobel Peace Prize I used a portion
814
00:51:28,529 --> 00:51:31,032
of the prize money to purchase an office
815
00:51:31,032 --> 00:51:34,969
for this NGO and furnished it.
816
00:51:34,969 --> 00:51:40,241
I invested the rest of the prize, and used the dividends
817
00:51:40,241 --> 00:51:47,181
to help the families of political prisoners.
818
00:51:47,181 --> 00:51:50,885
Everyone is born with a certain feeling.
819
00:51:50,885 --> 00:51:55,156
I believe the most fortunate of all people
820
00:51:55,156 --> 00:52:02,263
are the ones who go after their instincts and their nature.
821
00:52:02,964 --> 00:52:04,365
A graduate of Tehran University,
822
00:52:04,365 --> 00:52:06,868
Judge Ebadi was one of Iran's first female judges
823
00:52:06,868 --> 00:52:10,872
in 1975. After the ‘79 Islamic revolution,
824
00:52:10,872 --> 00:52:12,974
she was forced to resign when she was told
825
00:52:12,974 --> 00:52:15,476
she could no longer serve on the bench
826
00:52:15,476 --> 00:52:17,578
because she's a woman.
827
00:52:17,578 --> 00:52:19,647
She went on to establish a law practice
828
00:52:19,647 --> 00:52:22,183
representing political dissidents, Iranian women
829
00:52:22,183 --> 00:52:24,652
and families of artists and intellectuals
830
00:52:24,652 --> 00:52:26,888
killed by the government.
831
00:52:26,888 --> 00:52:28,256
Over the course of her career,
832
00:52:28,256 --> 00:52:30,525
Shirin Ebadi has been jailed.
833
00:52:30,525 --> 00:52:32,327
In addition to her work as a lawyer,
834
00:52:32,327 --> 00:52:34,529
she's also written 11 books on human
835
00:52:34,529 --> 00:52:38,700
rights and on family law, setting out the rights of children.
836
00:52:38,700 --> 00:52:41,736
As she speaks around the world now,
837
00:52:41,736 --> 00:52:45,973
opposed to the invasion and occupation of Iraq.
838
00:52:45,973 --> 00:52:49,811
Iraq traditionally under Saddam Hussein,
839
00:52:49,811 --> 00:52:53,114
an enemy of the Iranian government,
840
00:52:53,114 --> 00:52:56,184
the two countries, your two countries fought a war
841
00:52:56,184 --> 00:52:59,921
for many years that took many, many lives.
842
00:52:59,921 --> 00:53:01,989
Many might be surprised
843
00:53:01,989 --> 00:53:06,227
that you criticize the U. S. invasion.
844
00:53:06,227 --> 00:53:13,234
Democracy means that people need to decide on their own.
845
00:53:13,234 --> 00:53:18,306
We have to remember that democracy is not a commodity
846
00:53:18,306 --> 00:53:21,275
that can be offered to another country.
847
00:53:21,275 --> 00:53:25,246
Can you talk about your representation
848
00:53:25,246 --> 00:53:29,650
of the family of Zahra Kazemi?
849
00:53:29,650 --> 00:53:31,252
What happened to her first?
850
00:53:31,252 --> 00:53:33,187
And what you are doing?
851
00:53:33,187 --> 00:53:38,226
Zahra Kazemi was a photojournalist,
852
00:53:38,226 --> 00:53:43,698
a Canadian Iranian who was arrested in Tehran.
853
00:53:43,698 --> 00:53:51,472
In Evin prison she was hit on the head and died as a result.
854
00:53:52,874 --> 00:53:58,613
Do you believe the people who are responsible
855
00:53:58,613 --> 00:54:04,118
for Zahra's death are being charged?
856
00:54:06,921 --> 00:54:14,228
I'm not particularly interested
857
00:54:14,228 --> 00:54:18,065
in the individuals who have been accused.
858
00:54:18,065 --> 00:54:21,235
What is important is to change
859
00:54:21,235 --> 00:54:24,472
the administration of the current system,
860
00:54:24,472 --> 00:54:29,010
so the tragedy of Zahra Kazemi
861
00:54:29,010 --> 00:54:30,945
will not be repeated in the future.
862
00:54:30,945 --> 00:54:35,750
What gives you hope? Where do you see change happening?
863
00:54:35,750 --> 00:54:41,088
What gives me hope is people's desire for hope and change.
864
00:54:42,323 --> 00:54:47,662
People are very much interested in changing these laws.
865
00:54:47,662 --> 00:54:51,866
And, finally, they will win.
866
00:54:52,400 --> 00:54:55,870
Shirin began to represent Zahra's mother in court.
867
00:54:55,870 --> 00:54:58,606
The freelance photographer from Canada was arrested
868
00:54:58,606 --> 00:55:02,743
in Iran and branded a spy for taking photos of Evin Prison.
869
00:55:02,743 --> 00:55:06,347
She was held and tortured for 77 hours
870
00:55:06,347 --> 00:55:08,783
and then spent 14 days in a hospital
871
00:55:08,783 --> 00:55:14,489
controlled by the hardline Revolutionary Guards.
872
00:55:14,489 --> 00:55:15,990
Friends who saw her there
873
00:55:15,990 --> 00:55:19,694
said she was unconscious and almost unrecognizable,
874
00:55:19,694 --> 00:55:22,463
with severe cuts and bruises on her face and body.
875
00:55:22,463 --> 00:55:24,632
She was then quickly buried to cover up
876
00:55:24,632 --> 00:55:26,868
the signs of torture.
877
00:55:26,868 --> 00:55:30,238
Shirin filed an appeal to open a murder investigation,
878
00:55:30,238 --> 00:55:34,175
saying that the killing was premeditated.
879
00:55:35,109 --> 00:55:39,714
But the justice system refused her claim.
880
00:55:40,248 --> 00:55:43,217
We don't accept this as a fair trial. We don't accept this as a fair trial.
881
00:55:43,217 --> 00:55:46,087
The investigation is not complete yet.
882
00:55:46,087 --> 00:55:47,755
And they are not willing to complete it.
883
00:55:48,222 --> 00:55:50,157
And they are not willing to complete it.
884
00:55:52,059 --> 00:55:56,497
When the trial ended, as a protest,
885
00:55:56,497 --> 00:56:01,936
Zahra Kazemi's mother and her attorneys left the courtroom.
886
00:56:03,638 --> 00:56:06,474
In the end, Shirin lost the case
887
00:56:06,474 --> 00:56:09,010
and Zahra's killers were never brought to justice.
888
00:56:09,911 --> 00:56:13,414
It is this patriarchal culture
889
00:56:13,414 --> 00:56:18,519
that holds back the progress of Human Rights in Iran.
890
00:56:18,519 --> 00:56:23,324
We must change this male dominated,
891
00:56:23,324 --> 00:56:27,261
tribal mentality and culture
892
00:56:27,261 --> 00:56:30,197
to a humanitarian one.
893
00:56:30,765 --> 00:56:32,199
In 2006,
894
00:56:32,199 --> 00:56:35,169
Shirin joined forces with several of her fellow lawyers
895
00:56:35,169 --> 00:56:38,406
who had created a campaign aimed specifically at expanding
896
00:56:38,406 --> 00:56:40,741
rights and protection for women in Iran.
897
00:56:40,741 --> 00:56:44,679
Iran has much potential for change.
898
00:56:44,679 --> 00:56:47,415
We have a very good student movement,
899
00:56:47,415 --> 00:56:49,584
a great feminist movement.
900
00:56:49,584 --> 00:56:56,624
The people of Iran are resisting their government.
901
00:56:56,624 --> 00:57:00,761
And I'm sure that they will be able
902
00:57:00,761 --> 00:57:03,197
to reform the government over time.
903
00:57:03,197 --> 00:57:05,866
I am Nasrin Sotoudeh,
904
00:57:05,866 --> 00:57:09,570
I am the attorney for women activists
905
00:57:09,570 --> 00:57:13,641
and the One Million Signatures campaign
906
00:57:13,641 --> 00:57:16,577
which tries to improve the laws pertaining to Women’s Rights.
907
00:57:16,577 --> 00:57:21,115
This will demonstrate to the government of Iran
908
00:57:21,115 --> 00:57:25,720
that changing the laws regarding women,
909
00:57:25,720 --> 00:57:29,390
with full rights as citizens of a society,
910
00:57:29,390 --> 00:57:31,592
is not only a Western concept,
911
00:57:31,592 --> 00:57:33,527
but a concept accepted by Muslim women
912
00:57:33,527 --> 00:57:37,898
who have signed the campaign petition,
913
00:57:37,898 --> 00:57:40,935
and are requesting these changes.
914
00:57:41,535 --> 00:57:44,438
I'm a member of the One Million Signature campaign.
915
00:57:44,438 --> 00:57:48,743
That it, it just started about eight months ago.
916
00:57:48,743 --> 00:57:51,545
We decided to gather one million signatures
917
00:57:51,545 --> 00:57:56,150
from the women in Iran to show that we want to change the law.
918
00:57:56,150 --> 00:57:59,754
So we started to talk with people face to face.
919
00:57:59,754 --> 00:58:03,124
For example, we go to the teachers,
920
00:58:03,124 --> 00:58:06,827
with the nurses, the doctors, we went to the homes,
921
00:58:06,827 --> 00:58:11,432
the houses. We talk about their lives, our lives.
922
00:58:11,432 --> 00:58:16,437
You've heard about the violation of Women’s Rights in Iran.
923
00:58:16,437 --> 00:58:21,709
But, I need to tell you that
924
00:58:21,709 --> 00:58:31,118
in Iran women are resisting and they are fighting back hard.
925
00:58:31,118 --> 00:58:34,355
This campaign is unprecedented in Iranian history.
926
00:58:34,355 --> 00:58:36,057
Never in the past,
927
00:58:36,057 --> 00:58:38,292
have even men have been able to organise well,
928
00:58:38,292 --> 00:58:41,028
where regardless of political views,
929
00:58:41,028 --> 00:58:44,665
people can gather around a common cause.
930
00:58:44,665 --> 00:58:49,737
But women are accomplishing this, not only practicing democracy,
931
00:58:49,737 --> 00:58:54,909
but practicing reinstatement of Women’s Rights.
932
00:58:54,909 --> 00:58:57,144
This is a project for two years.
933
00:58:57,144 --> 00:58:59,847
We hope that we can finish it
934
00:58:59,847 --> 00:59:02,983
before they arrest or send to jail
935
00:59:02,983 --> 00:59:06,587
or being in the court or something like that.
936
00:59:06,587 --> 00:59:10,858
Yes, it is natural that I should be scared.
937
00:59:10,858 --> 00:59:14,462
Many times Judges have told me
938
00:59:14,462 --> 00:59:18,365
that they will throw me in prison too.
939
00:59:18,365 --> 00:59:21,936
However, I always told them that it does not matter,
940
00:59:21,936 --> 00:59:24,338
since in prison I will be resting.
941
00:59:24,338 --> 00:59:29,677
I think it is easier to tolerate prison than the situation outside.
942
00:59:29,677 --> 00:59:30,878
The One Million Signatures
943
00:59:30,878 --> 00:59:34,281
campaign started to receive international support and acclaim.
944
00:59:35,349 --> 00:59:37,685
Then the death threats against Shirin and her daughters
945
00:59:37,685 --> 00:59:41,088
started to increase, to intensify.
946
00:59:41,088 --> 00:59:44,158
Shirin encouraged her daughters to focus on their studies
947
00:59:44,158 --> 00:59:46,427
and to choose excellent universities.
948
00:59:46,427 --> 00:59:48,662
Negar left for graduate school
949
00:59:48,662 --> 00:59:52,967
at McGill University in Montreal, Canada soon after.
950
00:59:52,967 --> 00:59:56,470
On March 6, 2008, Parvin Ardalan was to be awarded
951
00:59:56,470 --> 00:59:59,173
the Olof Palme Award in Sweden
952
00:59:59,173 --> 01:00:03,444
for her work on the One Million Signatures campaign.
953
01:00:03,444 --> 01:00:06,914
Instead, she was arrested at the Tehran airport,
954
01:00:06,914 --> 01:00:09,183
and sentenced to three years in prison
955
01:00:09,183 --> 01:00:12,419
for allegedly threatening the national security.
956
01:00:13,521 --> 01:00:15,289
Then, the government of President
957
01:00:15,289 --> 01:00:18,926
Ahmadinejad started to come after Shirin herself.
958
01:00:18,926 --> 01:00:21,796
In December of 2008, a celebration
959
01:00:21,796 --> 01:00:24,431
at Shirin’s Center for the Defense of Human
960
01:00:24,431 --> 01:00:26,834
Rights was disrupted by police.
961
01:00:26,834 --> 01:00:28,769
They said that the gathering was banned
962
01:00:28,769 --> 01:00:30,971
and that the Center for the Defense of Human Rights
963
01:00:30,971 --> 01:00:34,441
must shut its doors forever.
964
01:00:34,909 --> 01:00:37,378
Their files and computers were confiscated.
965
01:00:37,378 --> 01:00:40,080
Human Rights Watch issued a report saying
966
01:00:40,080 --> 01:00:43,784
that it was extremely concerned about the safety of Shirin Ebadi
967
01:00:43,784 --> 01:00:46,787
after both her home and her office were attacked
968
01:00:46,787 --> 01:00:49,356
by a pro-government mob.
969
01:00:52,526 --> 01:00:54,662
But the campaign for Human Rights
970
01:00:54,662 --> 01:00:57,031
for the women of Iran continued on.
971
01:00:57,031 --> 01:01:00,301
They were joined by others who were also full of discontent,
972
01:01:00,301 --> 01:01:03,237
all coming together to challenge the ironclad
973
01:01:03,237 --> 01:01:05,739
rule of the hardliners in Iran.
974
01:01:05,739 --> 01:01:08,442
They were all struggling for reform.
975
01:01:08,442 --> 01:01:12,513
And in the run up to the presidential election in 2009,
976
01:01:13,180 --> 01:01:16,317
this movement was ascendant.
977
01:01:16,317 --> 01:01:20,788
As a woman, equal rights for all is important to me,
978
01:01:20,788 --> 01:01:24,124
and freedom of speech is also very important.
979
01:01:24,124 --> 01:01:26,927
It all goes back to freedom of speech.
980
01:01:28,796 --> 01:01:32,433
As a young Iranian, I will vote for Mr. Mousavi
981
01:01:32,433 --> 01:01:35,236
and I have participated in his campaigning,
982
01:01:35,236 --> 01:01:39,807
for our economy and for the freedom of young people.
983
01:01:42,610 --> 01:01:45,212
Mir-Hossein Mousavi, he's not exactly what we want,
984
01:01:45,212 --> 01:01:50,718
but he's better than the other, and can at least bring change.
985
01:01:50,718 --> 01:01:57,758
We don't want things this way. No one wants it like this.
986
01:02:05,699 --> 01:02:12,139
If the candidates that prioritize Human Rights
987
01:02:12,139 --> 01:02:17,211
in their policies are elected,
988
01:02:17,211 --> 01:02:22,950
since the public will have the right to question them,
989
01:02:22,950 --> 01:02:27,621
this could naturally improve the situation.
990
01:02:27,621 --> 01:02:30,024
Shirin's youngest daughter, Nargess,
991
01:02:30,024 --> 01:02:32,660
left to attend McGill University in Canada,
992
01:02:32,660 --> 01:02:35,262
following in her sister's footsteps.
993
01:02:35,663 --> 01:02:39,333
And on the day before the 2009 presidential election,
994
01:02:39,333 --> 01:02:42,169
Shirin left the country for a speaking tour in Europe.
995
01:02:43,771 --> 01:02:45,639
The reformist candidate,
996
01:02:45,639 --> 01:02:47,675
former Prime Minister Mousavi,
997
01:02:47,675 --> 01:02:50,711
had more supporters than President Ahmadinejad.
998
01:02:50,711 --> 01:02:53,047
Violations of basic human rights
999
01:02:53,047 --> 01:02:56,183
had more than tripled during his first term as president.
1000
01:02:57,351 --> 01:02:58,218
When the election was
1001
01:02:58,218 --> 01:03:00,521
held, Moussavi declared victory.
1002
01:03:00,521 --> 01:03:02,456
His supporters celebrated the triumph
1003
01:03:02,456 --> 01:03:04,758
of their green movement for change.
1004
01:03:27,648 --> 01:03:30,250
But then, in a sinister turn,
1005
01:03:30,250 --> 01:03:34,321
President Ahmadinejad declared that, no, he had won the election
1006
01:03:34,321 --> 01:03:37,691
in a landslide, and with more than two thirds of the votes.
1007
01:03:37,691 --> 01:03:40,894
Ayatollah Khamenei ratified these false results,
1008
01:03:40,894 --> 01:03:45,165
giving him a second term as President.
1009
01:03:45,165 --> 01:03:47,201
Iran erupted in protest
1010
01:03:47,201 --> 01:03:50,704
in the largest demonstrations to be seen across the country
1011
01:03:50,704 --> 01:03:53,073
since the 1979 revolution.
1012
01:04:05,486 --> 01:04:07,521
Shirin’s friends urged her
1013
01:04:07,521 --> 01:04:09,523
to stay in Europe and to tell the world
1014
01:04:09,523 --> 01:04:10,858
what was going on.
1015
01:04:13,293 --> 01:04:20,167
The people of Iran peacefully demand liberty for Iran
1016
01:04:20,167 --> 01:04:23,604
and democracy for Iranians.
1017
01:04:23,604 --> 01:04:24,905
She appealed
1018
01:04:24,905 --> 01:04:28,308
to the European Union and to governments around the world.
1019
01:04:28,308 --> 01:04:30,644
I asked the United Nation's Mr. Ban Ki-moon,
1020
01:04:30,644 --> 01:04:34,948
to send a special envoy to Iran to investigate the situation.
1021
01:04:34,948 --> 01:04:39,987
And today I'm asking the European Parliament to send
1022
01:04:39,987 --> 01:04:42,389
a special delegation to Iran
1023
01:04:42,389 --> 01:04:49,229
to investigate and determine the truth.
1024
01:04:51,065 --> 01:04:53,600
But, her efforts failed.
1025
01:04:54,768 --> 01:04:56,937
An unprecedented government crackdown
1026
01:04:56,937 --> 01:04:59,406
began in Iran with waves of arrest
1027
01:04:59,406 --> 01:05:00,941
and imprisonment.
1028
01:05:04,945 --> 01:05:05,979
Shirin continued
1029
01:05:05,979 --> 01:05:08,549
to travel the world, telling everyone she could
1030
01:05:08,549 --> 01:05:10,951
what was happening in Iran.
1031
01:05:10,951 --> 01:05:16,356
I have no trust in what the government says.
1032
01:05:16,757 --> 01:05:20,194
I have no trust in what the government says.
1033
01:05:20,194 --> 01:05:22,463
The Iranian government retaliated
1034
01:05:22,463 --> 01:05:25,399
by invalidating Shirin's husband's passport
1035
01:05:25,399 --> 01:05:28,635
so that he could not leave the country and join her.
1036
01:05:28,635 --> 01:05:30,537
Both her husband and her sister
1037
01:05:30,537 --> 01:05:33,006
were arrested and sent to prison.
1038
01:05:33,006 --> 01:05:36,376
The government confiscated everything that Shirin owned,
1039
01:05:36,376 --> 01:05:40,147
including her home and her office, including her father's house,
1040
01:05:40,380 --> 01:05:43,183
even including her Nobel Peace Prize.
1041
01:05:43,183 --> 01:05:47,054
And we are shocked by the actions of the Iranian authorities.
1042
01:05:47,054 --> 01:05:49,790
Shirin Ebadi has done nothing wrong,
1043
01:05:49,790 --> 01:05:53,327
and we think that she is being punished
1044
01:05:53,327 --> 01:05:57,097
in a very, in a totally illegal way.
1045
01:05:57,097 --> 01:06:00,801
And not only is she being punished, but her husband,
1046
01:06:00,801 --> 01:06:03,504
friends and family members have also been punished.
1047
01:06:03,504 --> 01:06:04,972
This is totally unacceptable.
1048
01:06:04,972 --> 01:06:08,942
This is the only example we have of the diploma and the medal
1049
01:06:08,942 --> 01:06:11,411
being confiscated by the authorities.
1050
01:06:12,146 --> 01:06:14,081
Nasrin was arrested,
1051
01:06:14,081 --> 01:06:16,550
charged with spreading propaganda,
1052
01:06:16,550 --> 01:06:19,853
and sentenced to 11 years in Evin prison.
1053
01:06:20,721 --> 01:06:22,623
Narges was arrested,
1054
01:06:22,623 --> 01:06:25,926
charged with acting against the national security,
1055
01:06:25,926 --> 01:06:29,163
and sentenced to 11 years in Evin prison, as well.
1056
01:06:30,731 --> 01:06:32,799
The only thing that Shirin could save
1057
01:06:32,799 --> 01:06:35,969
was her garden, her family orchard.
1058
01:06:35,969 --> 01:06:37,604
A friend agreed to purchase it
1059
01:06:37,604 --> 01:06:40,307
when the Iranian government put it up for auction.
1060
01:06:40,307 --> 01:06:42,442
His family now gathers there
1061
01:06:42,442 --> 01:06:45,979
to laugh, to play, and it still remains
1062
01:06:45,979 --> 01:06:48,649
a refuge from the storm.
1063
01:06:49,883 --> 01:06:51,351
Three months later,
1064
01:06:51,351 --> 01:06:53,387
in the cruelest blow of all,
1065
01:06:53,387 --> 01:06:56,190
the government of Iran set a trap for Shirin's husband,
1066
01:06:56,190 --> 01:06:59,426
Javad, who was home all alone and in despair
1067
01:06:59,426 --> 01:07:02,296
after being released from prison.
1068
01:07:02,296 --> 01:07:10,537
I think what they did to my husband is inconceivable.
1069
01:07:10,537 --> 01:07:14,942
Everything that happened to him, broke him.
1070
01:07:14,942 --> 01:07:17,411
He suffered a lot.
1071
01:07:17,411 --> 01:07:19,446
My husband, Javad,
1072
01:07:19,446 --> 01:07:24,985
was not political at all, but he did not oppose my work.
1073
01:07:24,985 --> 01:07:35,262
We had a good life together.
1074
01:07:35,262 --> 01:07:40,534
In 2009, when my home and office were raided
1075
01:07:40,534 --> 01:07:48,308
and everything that happened, I did not go back to Iran.
1076
01:07:48,308 --> 01:07:56,550
This is when the government decided to play a dirty trick on Javad.
1077
01:07:56,550 --> 01:08:01,788
One of our old acquaintances was recruited
1078
01:08:01,788 --> 01:08:05,425
to cooperate with the government.
1079
01:08:05,425 --> 01:08:08,862
This person invited my husband and his ex-girlfriend to her house.
1080
01:08:08,862 --> 01:08:11,298
There she suggested to Javad, now that your wife is away,
1081
01:08:11,298 --> 01:08:13,900
you two can reconcile and become friends again.
1082
01:08:13,900 --> 01:08:18,272
After dinner she pretended to have something to do
1083
01:08:18,272 --> 01:08:20,173
and left the room.
1084
01:08:20,173 --> 01:08:27,281
They both drank, kissed and made love.
1085
01:08:27,281 --> 01:08:33,754
Ten minutes later, the door of a different room in the house opened
1086
01:08:33,754 --> 01:08:39,626
and an intelligence official walked in with a camcorder in his hand,
1087
01:08:39,626 --> 01:08:43,230
and said he had recorded everything.
1088
01:08:43,230 --> 01:08:49,703
Right then and there, they put Javad in handcuffs and took him in.
1089
01:08:49,703 --> 01:08:56,310
He was flogged for drinking wine.
1090
01:08:56,310 --> 01:09:00,480
He was told that he had committed adultery
1091
01:09:00,480 --> 01:09:03,583
and his punishment was to be stoned to death.
1092
01:09:03,583 --> 01:09:07,254
He asked for an attorney, but the judge said,
1093
01:09:07,254 --> 01:09:17,964
“The video exists, I can see everything. It's death by stoning. "
1094
01:09:17,964 --> 01:09:24,037
Blindfolded, they brought him back to his cell.
1095
01:09:24,037 --> 01:09:27,774
A bit later, one other officer,
1096
01:09:27,774 --> 01:09:32,212
one of those who usually plays the role of the good cop,
1097
01:09:32,212 --> 01:09:37,351
entered the cell and talked him into reading off of a script
1098
01:09:37,351 --> 01:09:43,690
that had been prepared by them for television,
1099
01:09:43,690 --> 01:09:48,428
in exchange for the dismissal of the adultery case.
1100
01:09:48,428 --> 01:09:53,967
My husband agreed. He had to agree.
1101
01:09:53,967 --> 01:09:58,705
The film starts with an anchor person stating that
1102
01:09:58,705 --> 01:10:02,476
the woman who is your hero has another face too.
1103
01:10:02,476 --> 01:10:07,180
Listen to her husband speak about her.
1104
01:10:07,214 --> 01:10:11,852
He was set free afterwards.
1105
01:10:11,852 --> 01:10:14,855
Then he called me, in tears, and
1106
01:10:14,855 --> 01:10:18,024
he told me what had happened.
1107
01:10:18,024 --> 01:10:22,829
I asked him to stay calm.
1108
01:10:22,829 --> 01:10:26,366
I told him that I was familiar with these tactics
1109
01:10:26,366 --> 01:10:30,137
and know what dirty tricks
1110
01:10:30,137 --> 01:10:34,474
these people play to break those who criticize them.
1111
01:10:34,474 --> 01:10:37,110
Iranian Intelligence Officers continued
1112
01:10:37,110 --> 01:10:39,346
to interrogate him on a weekly basis,
1113
01:10:39,346 --> 01:10:40,680
demanding that he make his wife
1114
01:10:40,680 --> 01:10:43,183
stop publicly speaking against them.
1115
01:10:43,183 --> 01:10:47,087
"She is your wife. You have to be able to control her. " they said.
1116
01:10:47,087 --> 01:10:51,725
And all of this treatment resulted in the breaking of this man.
1117
01:10:51,725 --> 01:10:53,393
He underwent a lot.
1118
01:10:53,393 --> 01:10:57,264
Finally we were divorced on his call
1119
01:10:57,264 --> 01:11:01,968
so that we could stop this persecution by the government.
1120
01:11:01,968 --> 01:11:05,272
But, he paid for it too.
1121
01:11:06,239 --> 01:11:07,741
Javad suffered diminished
1122
01:11:07,741 --> 01:11:11,711
mental capacity as a result of this imprisonment and abuse.
1123
01:11:11,711 --> 01:11:15,248
He continues to live in Iran, under the care of his sister
1124
01:11:15,248 --> 01:11:16,683
and family.
1125
01:11:20,353 --> 01:11:21,488
Today, Shirin
1126
01:11:21,488 --> 01:11:24,224
is based in London and works all over the world.
1127
01:11:24,724 --> 01:11:27,961
Both of her daughters are highly educated and successful.
1128
01:11:27,961 --> 01:11:30,263
Negar lives in the USA.
1129
01:11:30,263 --> 01:11:32,933
Nargess lives in London as well.
1130
01:11:32,933 --> 01:11:35,602
And they remain a tightly knit family.
1131
01:11:35,602 --> 01:11:37,804
They keep in touch with Javad by telephone,
1132
01:11:37,804 --> 01:11:39,840
though he continues to suffer from dementia.
1133
01:11:41,508 --> 01:11:46,379
A few of my friends told me not to go back to Iran.
1134
01:11:46,379 --> 01:11:49,716
When I asked them why,
1135
01:11:49,716 --> 01:11:54,721
they told me I could do more from outside of Iran.
1136
01:11:54,721 --> 01:12:00,227
“Go tell the world what has happened to the people of Iran. ”
1137
01:12:00,227 --> 01:12:03,530
I agreed with them.
1138
01:12:03,530 --> 01:12:10,303
It is best for me to go all over the world and speak,
1139
01:12:10,303 --> 01:12:15,108
to write books, articles, and tell the world what is going on in Iran.
1140
01:12:15,108 --> 01:12:17,110
During this time Iranian officials sent messages to me
1141
01:12:17,110 --> 01:12:22,782
indicating that if I agreed to become silent,
1142
01:12:22,782 --> 01:12:25,585
they would return my property,
1143
01:12:25,585 --> 01:12:28,121
there would be no problem facing me.
1144
01:12:28,121 --> 01:12:33,894
I said no, that I would not become silent under any condition.
1145
01:12:33,894 --> 01:12:38,431
With all the atrocities committed in Iran, I cannot be silent.
1146
01:12:38,999 --> 01:12:41,935
Shirin focuses on the Nobel Women's Initiative
1147
01:12:41,935 --> 01:12:43,403
that she co-founded with Jody Williams,
1148
01:12:43,403 --> 01:12:46,339
which helps female activists fight for equal rights
1149
01:12:46,339 --> 01:12:48,608
in many different parts of the world.
1150
01:12:48,608 --> 01:12:51,678
And she works closely with her fellow Nobel Peace laureates
1151
01:12:51,678 --> 01:12:54,881
to support equal rights for women in Muslim countries
1152
01:12:54,881 --> 01:12:59,019
and in all countries, regardless of the religion or culture.
1153
01:12:59,019 --> 01:13:04,624
What causes discrimination against women is not religion.
1154
01:13:05,625 --> 01:13:10,597
It is the patriarchal culture that doesn't
1155
01:13:10,597 --> 01:13:13,199
accept equality of human beings.
1156
01:13:13,199 --> 01:13:15,635
When I say patriarchal, I'm not referring
1157
01:13:15,635 --> 01:13:18,505
to the masculine gender. I'm talking about a culture
1158
01:13:18,505 --> 01:13:20,507
that doesn't accept equality,
1159
01:13:20,507 --> 01:13:24,744
and because this culture doesn't believe in equality,
1160
01:13:24,744 --> 01:13:31,985
it has no respect for women, and it can't tolerate democracy either.
1161
01:13:34,421 --> 01:13:38,625
In countries where there is more democracy,
1162
01:13:38,625 --> 01:13:43,997
women have a better situation.
1163
01:13:43,997 --> 01:13:46,199
That’s right.
1164
01:13:46,199 --> 01:13:54,040
Although the women are victims of such a culture,
1165
01:13:54,040 --> 01:13:58,545
they're also responsible for carrying on this culture as well.
1166
01:13:58,545 --> 01:14:02,382
We must not forget that every man who
1167
01:14:02,382 --> 01:14:04,851
is a bully has been raised by a woman.
1168
01:14:04,851 --> 01:14:10,256
So it's important that we make women aware of this wrong culture.
1169
01:14:10,256 --> 01:14:15,495
And if we resist this culture, if we struggle against it,
1170
01:14:15,495 --> 01:14:23,503
then we can have equal rights in any religion and in any culture.
1171
01:14:25,472 --> 01:14:27,173
Yet her most important work
1172
01:14:27,173 --> 01:14:30,877
continues to be her fight for human rights for the people of Iran,
1173
01:14:30,877 --> 01:14:33,113
as perhaps the world's leading critic
1174
01:14:33,113 --> 01:14:35,215
of Iran's Islamic Republic.
1175
01:14:35,348 --> 01:14:41,521
They hide behind the name Islam in order to deprive the rights
1176
01:14:41,521 --> 01:14:46,359
of half of society, in other words, women.
1177
01:14:46,359 --> 01:14:49,729
And in order to massacre innocent civilians
1178
01:14:49,729 --> 01:14:53,133
and to justify their terrorist deeds.
1179
01:14:53,133 --> 01:14:55,669
As Iran's leaders become less popular at home,
1180
01:14:55,669 --> 01:14:58,872
in this twilight of the Iranian revolution,
1181
01:14:58,872 --> 01:15:02,275
they have become even more cruel.
1182
01:15:03,243 --> 01:15:06,079
On November 16, 2019,
1183
01:15:06,079 --> 01:15:09,115
massive protests erupted across Iran
1184
01:15:09,115 --> 01:15:11,718
when the regime raised gasoline prices
1185
01:15:11,718 --> 01:15:13,620
by more than 50 percent.
1186
01:15:13,620 --> 01:15:15,889
Cries of “Death to the Supreme Leader”
1187
01:15:15,889 --> 01:15:18,658
rang out across the nation.
1188
01:15:19,125 --> 01:15:22,462
The hardline leadership responded by cutting off the Internet
1189
01:15:22,462 --> 01:15:24,898
and then opening fire to crush the people
1190
01:15:24,898 --> 01:15:27,067
who had filled the streets.
1191
01:15:28,201 --> 01:15:30,503
They killed more than 1,000 of the protesters,
1192
01:15:30,503 --> 01:15:33,573
and many more were imprisoned.
1193
01:15:34,107 --> 01:15:36,042
In January of 2020,
1194
01:15:36,042 --> 01:15:38,011
Iran mistakenly shot down
1195
01:15:38,011 --> 01:15:40,613
a commercial airliner full of college students
1196
01:15:40,613 --> 01:15:44,084
returning to Canada to resume their university studies.
1197
01:15:44,417 --> 01:15:48,188
Then they denied responsibility for the crash of the airplane,
1198
01:15:48,188 --> 01:15:51,491
full of bright young Iranians whose lives were cut short
1199
01:15:51,491 --> 01:15:53,426
so tragically.
1200
01:15:55,428 --> 01:15:58,798
Protesters filled the streets of Iran once again,
1201
01:15:58,798 --> 01:16:01,935
and many of them are now locked up in Iranian prisons
1202
01:16:01,935 --> 01:16:04,871
as the government struggles to contain popular dissent.
1203
01:16:05,972 --> 01:16:09,175
Iran's mishandling of the pandemic and its aftermath
1204
01:16:09,175 --> 01:16:12,445
has now pushed the majority of the people of Iran to the brink.
1205
01:16:13,413 --> 01:16:16,449
They no longer support the 40 year old
1206
01:16:16,449 --> 01:16:18,885
experiment of an Islamic Republic.
1207
01:16:19,586 --> 01:16:23,656
Shirin Ebadi is calling for a U. N. monitored referendum
1208
01:16:23,656 --> 01:16:26,493
on changing the Iranian constitution,
1209
01:16:26,493 --> 01:16:29,496
so the people of Iran themselves have the opportunity
1210
01:16:29,496 --> 01:16:32,766
to eliminate the unelected office of Supreme Leader,
1211
01:16:32,766 --> 01:16:36,302
and to create a secular democracy instead.
1212
01:16:36,302 --> 01:16:41,708
As an Iranian, I want to say shame to all dictators,
1213
01:16:41,708 --> 01:16:45,044
and shame on our dictator and government who
1214
01:16:45,044 --> 01:16:49,149
will forego the Iranian national interest to stay in power.
1215
01:16:50,717 --> 01:16:52,519
Do people know,
1216
01:16:52,519 --> 01:16:55,822
on average one person is executed every day in Iran?
1217
01:16:55,822 --> 01:16:59,159
Or that women are sent to prison
1218
01:16:59,159 --> 01:17:02,729
for trying to attend a football match?
1219
01:17:02,729 --> 01:17:06,800
Or that a father can cut off his daughter's head
1220
01:17:06,800 --> 01:17:13,706
and escape prison by calling it an honor killing?
1221
01:17:13,706 --> 01:17:18,478
Or that hundreds of women are now in prison
1222
01:17:18,478 --> 01:17:23,850
for refusing to wear a mandatory head scarf?
1223
01:17:24,984 --> 01:17:27,654
Nasrin agreed to defend these women in court.
1224
01:17:28,354 --> 01:17:32,692
The government of Iran retaliated by sentencing Nasrin herself
1225
01:17:32,692 --> 01:17:36,896
to 38 years in prison and 148 lashes.
1226
01:17:37,230 --> 01:17:38,531
Narges continued to speak up
1227
01:17:38,531 --> 01:17:41,301
for the families of the protesters killed.
1228
01:17:41,301 --> 01:17:44,838
The government retaliated by sentencing her again
1229
01:17:44,838 --> 01:17:48,341
to eight years in prison and seventy lashes,
1230
01:17:48,341 --> 01:17:51,811
in a trial that was only 5 minutes long.
1231
01:17:51,878 --> 01:17:55,114
The majority of college graduates in Iran are women,
1232
01:17:55,114 --> 01:17:59,052
and the hardline clerics are determined to keep them in line.
1233
01:17:59,052 --> 01:18:01,754
If they ever do receive greater rights,
1234
01:18:01,754 --> 01:18:04,724
they may very well lead the charge
1235
01:18:04,724 --> 01:18:09,429
to bring the current regime down.
1236
01:18:11,731 --> 01:18:16,002
We, the people of Iran, are fighting for democracy,
1237
01:18:16,002 --> 01:18:21,341
and we know that we will be victorious one day.
1238
01:18:31,784 --> 01:18:38,458
I am sure that I will go back to Iran one day soon.
1239
01:18:38,458 --> 01:18:42,428
Every morning I wake up with this dream
1240
01:18:42,428 --> 01:18:45,965
and I know that this dream,
1241
01:18:45,965 --> 01:18:51,137
like other dreams that I've had in life, will come true.
1242
01:18:53,539 --> 01:18:56,609
"My country, I shall build you again,
1243
01:18:56,609 --> 01:19:00,280
even if with bricks of my life.
1244
01:19:02,382 --> 01:19:05,485
I shall erect pillars beneath your roof,
1245
01:19:05,485 --> 01:19:08,855
even if with my own bones.
1246
01:19:10,189 --> 01:19:12,792
I shall again smell those flowers
1247
01:19:12,792 --> 01:19:15,995
favored by your young.
1248
01:19:19,465 --> 01:19:23,303
I shall again cleanse you of blood
1249
01:19:23,536 --> 01:19:32,045
with the flood of my own tears. "
95506
Can't find what you're looking for?
Get subtitles in any language from opensubtitles.com, and translate them here.