The first Muslim woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize took a swipe at US foreign policy in the Middle East on Tuesday in the run up to the ceremony where she will collect her US$1.4 million award.
Iranian reformist lawyer Shirin Ebadi, in Oslo to receive this year's award for her work to promote the rights of children and women, rebuked Washington for the US-led war in Iraq and reluctance to give the UN a meaningful role in Iraq's postwar resurrection.
"Democracy should not be used as a pretext to attack other countries," Ebadi told a news conference at the Norwegian Nobel Institute in Oslo where she was to collect her prize yesterday.
"But what is important is the support of international public opinion and the United Nations."
US President George W. Bush's administration -- which labelled North Korea, Iran and pre-war Iraq an "axis of evil" -- initially said it launched the Iraq war in March to rid the country of weapons of mass destruction, but none have been found. It now says Iraq is better off without president Saddam Hussein.
Pro-reform activists in Iran hope that Ebadi's prize will help reinvigorate reformists in Iran, who under President Mohammad Khatami have struggled to overcome stiff resistance to change from powerful hardline clerics.
Dressed in a pale pink suit and flaunting Iran's dress code for women by appearing without a headscarf, Ebadi warned reformists the award was a platform to call for change and not a magical event that would transform the political landscape.
"If only the Nobel Peace Prize they have given me was a golden key which could open the prison doors," she said. "All I can do is voice my demands and hope to get a response."
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