Issue 8

 Ehsan Foroughi
 MSc student of Computer Science, University of Toronto

In the first week of May there was a special excitement among Iranians in Toronto specially the Iranian students of University of Toronto since their university was the host of Dr. Shirin Ebadi, the first Iranian to win the Noble prize.

Friday afternoon was the honorary doctoral degree ceremony in Convocation Hall, and the next day there was a panel discussion followed by a reception. Both days the area was promisingly crowded and as I was wandering among the crowd I noticed that curiosity had dragged many people there, even those who criticize Dr. Ebadi's policy.

Although all Iranians are proud of Dr. Ebadi, yet so many of them criticized her words and policy of speech in her recent talks in Toronto.

Needless to say overwhelming majority of the audience in Dr. Ebadi's speech were Iranian and since the main language of the speech was Persian, many times the crowd responded to Dr. Ebadi even before the translator could translate her contentions. I presume this method of responding illustrated that a considerable majority of people agreed and praised what Dr. Ebadi spoke of.

The main criticism toward Dr. Ebadi 's speech in Toronto was her reluctance to discuss issues concerning Iran in an open manner and also that her speech was too cliche. Note that regarding foreign countries, specially the United States, she talked openly and harshly. So one might easily conclude that she doesn't want to get into fight with Iran's government since her ability to work in Iran depends on at least a limited level of co-operation with the Iranian government. I find this to be a brilliant strategy to be productive.

On the matter of being cliche, if you imagine yourself in the same position, you'll find yourself saying the same words more or less. She is giving so many talks that she has to stick to some good but not so sharp words not to arise sensitivity in the communities that she is involved in. Although I have to admit that some parts of her contentions about the Islamic rules in Qu'ran in the panel discussion, when the time constraints were really tight, were redundant.

At the end, note that she is only a single human being dedicating herself to her goal in the best according to her personal judgment. That is exactly why she got the Nobel Prize, not because of her supernatural powers and it is praise-worthy.