Thursday, October 28, 2004

Nobel Peace Prize Winner silenced in US

The winner of the 2003 Nobel Peace Prize and Iranian human rights activist, Shirin Ebadi, has been denied the right to publish a book of her views in the U.S. The Treasury Department is blocking publication of the book based on the sanctions imposed against Iran. Surely, Ms. Ebadi, who has been jailed for her views and has been censored in her own country, will write a book that would generally please most US officials. So, why block the book based on beaurocratic idiocy? And, expanding the point, we tout our free speech as being one of the founding principles of democracy to the Middle East as we are trying to convince them that our way of life is better, so why aren't we letting a Middle Eastern woman exercise that same freedom from within our borders?

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