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Mehrangiz Kar Delivers Lecture on Iran Posted: October 24, 2007 Mehrangiz Kar has walked into courtrooms to defend women facing death by stoning and counted it as a victory that they "only" received 100 lashes. As an attorney practicing for 22 years in the Islamic Republic of Iran she represented men and women in cases ranging from commercial interactions to divorce to criminal proceedings for offences such as adultery. Kar was a well-known journalist who published widely during her twenties and early thirties, coinciding with the last decade of the murderous dictatorship of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, also known as the Shah of Iran. She obtained her license to practice law just months before the 1979 revolution from which followed an overhaul of the judiciary based on the new regime's interpretation of Islam. Changes included the summary dismissal of more than 100 women judges. Newly empowered jurists held lawyers, and female lawyers even more so, in low regard, often showing open disdain for their schedules and even teasing them. Contrary to early hopes that reformers who participated in the revolution might succeed in empowering women, as time went on women's rights and claims in matters such as divorce and custody disputes became more and more severely constricted. Today Kar is approaching her seventh year of exile. Currently based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Kar tells a story that includes her journalist husband's extra-legal abduction, torture, and subsequent televised forced confession of having committed crimes against Islam and the state. This happened after Kar herself was released from prison in order to seek treatment in the U.S. for breast cancer that had metastasized to her lymph nodes. She was arrested in 2000 and convicted the following year on charges of violating Islamic dress codes and being a threat to national security because she advocated for constitutional reforms at a conference in Berlin. "My family life was destroyed," Kar told a packed portion of Gamble Auditorium on Thursday, October 18. In her talk (see link below), the opening lecture in the 2007-2008 Weissman Center for Leadership series titled Bearing Witness, Kar said the Iranian government has so far refused to guarantee her safety were she to return. During the two decades in which she advocated for clients, Kar said, she had to learn how to use the language of religion to win moral and legal points. She was aided, she said, by sympathetic clergy who advanced alternate interpretations of fundamental texts to influence shari'a jurists on matters of human rights. In the last few years, she said, the dictatorship headed by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has moved to systematically obliterate dissent, obstructing even those avenues of resistance. "They accuse anybody who criticizes anything of being a threat to national security," she said. Weissman Center director Lois Brown said she first became aware of Kar's work in 2003 when Shirin Ebadi, once an Iranian judge, received the Nobel Peace Prize for her efforts on behalf of women and children. "Many of us were drawn to thinking about Iranian women and also about the nature of women's activism in the Middle East," said Brown. Kar is based at Wellesley College this year partly under the auspices of Scholars at Risk, a network that supports thinkers who face persecution. A prolific author in Farsi, she recently published her life story in English under the title Crossing the Red Line. "My main goal in writing this book is to show that even in the hardest situation one could find new ways to criticize the system and challenge the dominant power," Kar said. In addition to writing and talking Kar is promoting two international campaigns to pressure the Iranian government. One called "Stop Stoning Forever" aims to eradicate a form of capital punishment imposed in Iran as recently as a few months ago. The other campaign, "One Million Signatures Demanding Changes to Discriminatory Laws," seeks to educate people about the circumstances facing Iranian women. Kar advocates for these causes at her Web site (see link below), which she suspects is being actively interfered with by Iranian authorities. Brown said that inviting Kar to Mount Holyoke "puts a face on contemporary issues of human rights violations and political oppression." They were joined at a Friday breakfast gathering by Kristen Brouker, the statewide manager of the Massachusetts chapter of NOW. On a personal level, said Brown, Kar's lecture "underscored the resilience that is necessary when one is working for change and it really highlighted the importance of women's networks." Kar commented on Ahmadinejad's recent speech at Columbia University, saying she found it unfortunate that Columbia University President Lee Bollinger gave him a disrespectful introduction. It undermined the possibility of a productive discourse, she said, adding that the time for taking the Iranian ruler to task for his positions would have been during questions after the speech. Moreover, Kar finds it regrettable that the virtually exclusive focus on nuclear issues in official rhetoric directed at Iran from the West undermines those trying to understand her country as a complex society where not only women's rights but the ability of anybody to speak freely is under siege. Related Links: "With Determined Spirits": Activism and Contemporary Women's Rights in Iran -
Audio from Kar's Visit
Mehrangiz Kar's Web site Bearing Witness: 2007-2008 Weissman Center for Leadership and the Liberal Arts This notice expired on January 2, 2008.
Permanent link to this story: http://www.mtholyoke.edu/news/story/5473086
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