|
Nobel laureate sues US
02/11/2004 13:18 - (SA)
|
|
|
 |
|
| File photo of Shirin Ebadi before talks with French Justice Minister Dominique Perben. (Daniel Janin, AFP File)
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
New York - Iranian Nobel Peace Prize winner Shirin Ebadi, praised by President George W Bush and honoured at universities for her work on behalf of democracy and human rights, is suing the US government for blocking publication of her memoirs.
In her lawsuit, Ebadi argued that Treasury Department regulations restricting the publication in the United States of works by authors in countries subject to US trade sanctions is unconstitutional.
Ebadi and The Strothman Agency, a literary agent that wants to work with her, filed the suit in New York last week. On Monday, a federal judge agreed to add the lawsuit to similar litigation brought in September by other publishing groups and authors. A hearing date has not been set.
According to Treasury Department regulations, American companies are forbidden to publish the works of authors in Iran, Cuba and Sudan unless the works have already been completed without American involvement.
American publishers are also forbidden from promoting or marketing works from the three countries unless they obtain a licence from the department's Office of Foreign Asset Control.
'Critical missed opportunity'
The lawsuit alleges the restrictions violate the First Amendment and declarations by Congress that US trade embargoes may not be allowed to restrict the free flow of information and ideas.
Molly Millerwise, a Treasury spokesperson, said the department does not comment on specific lawsuits.
Ebadi, 57, became Iran's first woman judge during the waning years of the Western-backed monarchy, but was forced to resign following the 1979 Iranian revolution that brought to power a hardline Islamic regime.
As a lawyer and human rights activist, she has represented the families of writers and intellectuals who were murdered in Iran - legal campaigns that have landed her in prison.
She won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2003, making her the first Iranian and first Muslim woman to win the award. She said she wants to write a book about her life and career and publish it in America, rather than Iran, where it would be subject to state approval.
Ebadi said in her suit that blocking her memoirs would be a "critical missed opportunity both for Americans to learn more about my country and its people from a variety of Iranian voices and for a better understanding to be achieved between our two countries".
- AP
|
