|
 Ding Zilin: Tienanmen Mother
Ding Zilin was a professor of philospohy at Beijing University, but, following
the death of her seventeen-year-old son in Tienanen Square in 1989 and the foundation of the Tienanmen
Mothers, she lost her job in 1991. The Tienanmen Mothers all lost children on 3 and 4 June 1989, and they now campaign to
be allowed to mourn their children publicly, for there to be an end to persecution of the families, and for peaceful protesters
who have been imprisoned to be released. They also want an inquiry into the 1989 events in Tienanmen Square. Ding Zilin has
been subjected to periodic arrest, harrassment, discrimination and surveillance for many years. She has
been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, and, although in the run-up to the Olympics the restrictions placed on her seem
to have been relaxed somewhat, she and other women in China are still at risk. Next year will mark the 20th Anniversaryof
the events of June 1989 and there are hopes that the light shed on the plight of the Tienanmen Mothers and others by the Olympics,
together with the subsequent pressures brought to bear internationally, will result in justice for Ding Zilin, her family
and her colleagues.
 Shirin Ebadi: Iranian Nobel Peace Prize Winner
Shirin Edabi is
an Iranian lawyer, human rights campaigner and democracy activist. In 1975, she became the first woman judge in Iran, but,
4 years later, conservative Islamic clerics forced her demotion to a secretarial post. Her applications to practice as a lawyer
were repeatedly denied over the ensuing years, and it was not until 1992 that she was able to resume legal practice. She now
lectures in law at Tehran University, and campaigns around the legal status of women and children in Iran.
Whilst
unable to practice law, Shirin Ebadi wrote several books and articles, and, after 1992 began to act for the defence in a number
of high-profile cases, particularly those with a political flavour. In 2000, she was charged with distributing a
banned videotape of a former member of the secret police accusing former colleagues of various crimes - she had sent the tape
to the President and to the head of the Judiciary. She was sentenced to 5 years in prison and her licence to practice
law was again revoked, and although both sentences were lifted by the Appeal Court she still served 25 days in solitary confinement.
She has founded two organisations in Iran to further her objectives: the Society for Protecting the Rights of the
Child, and the Defenders of Human Rights Centre. She has campaigned hard for children to be treated as people, not possessions,
and for women's rights.
In 2003 she was awared the Nobel Peace Prize for her work, although this was controversial
and barely reported in Iran - particularly since she refused to cover her head for the ceremony. Since then she has continued
to work on human rights cases, to write, and to tour and lecture. Although she is opposed to external interference in her
country, she has recently said that the situation in Iran is worsening, and that she herself is under greater threat than
before. 'How can you defy fear?' she says. 'Fear is a human instinct, just like hunger. ... But I have trained
myself to live with this fear. ... if I discontinue my work I will have succumbed to my fears.'
|
