On February 2, 3, 4, NPR's Morning Edition will air a three part
series on Iran. In addition, American Radioworks, the documentary
unit of public radio, will air an hour long special it's called, "My
Name Is Iran".
NPR Producer Davar Ardalan's great-grandfather - Ali Akbar Davar -
created Iran's legal code in the 1920's. Ardalan has lived in Iran
under both the Shah's reign and that of the Ayatollahs. In this
special she traces her personal journey and Iran's struggle for a
lawful society, 25 years after the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
A century ago, Iran became the first country in the Middle East to
bring together secular and religious law. In 1979, an Islamic revolution made
Iran a theocracy and enshrined religious law as supreme. The changes were
dramatic: women were stoned for adultery, children could be tortured,
and the age of marriage for girls reduced to nine. Now, a movement is
growing within Iran to create a society that ensures human rights.
Inside Iran's courtrooms, Nobel Peace Prize winner Shirin Ebadi and
other lawyers are fighting for change. For example, they've been
successful in raising the age of marriage for girls from nine to 13
and divorced women now can have custody of male children up to the age of seven.
But they are confronting hardline clerics who are adamant that the legal system
remain based on their interpretation of the word of God.
Ardalan and co-producer Rasool Nafisi explore the ferment in todays Iran
at a time when other nations in the Islamic world are debating how to
balance secular and sacred law in a modern society.
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On February 3 if you go to npr.org you will be able to click on a link
to the website as well.
Some of the voices you'll hear:
Nobel Laureate Shirin Ebadi
Lawyer and human rights activist Mehrangiz Kar
Human Rights Watch Elahe Sharifpour Hicks
Iranian Lawyer Ahmad Bashiri
Head of Iran's Bar Association Bahman Keshavarz
Ayatollah Mohagheh Damad
Robin Wright of the Washington Post
US Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage
Richard Perle of American Enterprise Institute
Mehraghdas Davar Maleki
Reza Pahlavi