Iranian Nobelist Warns West on Rights

OSLO, Norway — Iranian human rights activist Shirin Ebadi accepted her Nobel Peace Prize on Wednesday with a warning that civil liberties and human rights must not be allowed to fall prey to the “war on terrorism” launched in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks.

Ebadi, the first Muslim woman and the first Iranian to win the award, said that even Western democracies have allowed their traditions of freedom and basic rights to be eroded.

“Regulations restricting human rights and basic freedoms ... have been justified and given legitimacy under the cloak of the war on terrorism,” she said.

Without naming the United States, she singled out the world’s only superpower for holding prisoners from Afghanistan at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, “without the benefits of rights.”

“The concerns of human rights advocates increase when they observe that international human rights laws are breached not only by their recognized opponents,” but by “Western democracies ... which count themselves among the initial codifiers of the United Nations Charter and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,” she said.

Ebadi, a lawyer, said she accepted the prize, which includes a $1.4-million award, on the behalf of all women, Iranians, Muslims and others who strive for human rights worldwide. Ebadi was recognized for her work on behalf of democracy and the rights of women and children.

In Iran, state TV reported Ebadi had received the award, but carried no pictures of the ceremony, apparently because she didn’t wear a head scarf. Hard-line vigilantes had issued statements vowing to punish her if she did not wear a scarf, according to newspaper reports.

Asked about the award, Iranian Vice President Mohammad Ali Abtahi said, “It’s a source of pride for Iran.” But no special ceremonies were set in Tehran.

Iranian reformers have looked to Ebadi to rally opposition to hard-liners who oppose any change to the conservative Islamic government.

In Stockholm, meanwhile, 10 Nobel laureates received prizes in other categories from King Carl XVI Gustaf.

J.M. Coetzee became the second South African to receive the literature prize, after Nadine Gordimer, who won in 1991.

American Paul C. Lauterbur and Briton Sir Peter Mansfield received the award in medicine, and Alexei A. Abrikosov of the U.S. and Russia, Anthony J. Leggett of the U.S. and Britain, and Russian Vitaly L. Ginzburg received the physics prize. Americans Peter Agre and Roderick MacKinnon won the chemistry prize, and American Robert F. Engle and Briton Clive W.J. Granger shared the memorial prize in economics.