BERLIN, Oct 13: Iran’s new Nobel peace laureate Shirin Ebadi, said in an interview on Monday that Muslim women who wear religious headscarves do not see it as a sign of submission and often feel stronger than men.

“Wearing headscarves is obligatory in my country, I respect the laws of my country so I wear it. Here (in Europe) I have a choice, so I choose not to wear one,” Shirin Ebadi told a German daily, Tageszeitung.

“As for the headscarf as an Islamic symbol of submission, I can tell you that many veiled women feel stronger than men” in Iran, she said.

Ms Ebadi, the first Muslim woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize, said she thought that “those who wear headscarves for personal reasons without trying to convert others as well should be allowed to do so”.

“Just like we should be allowed to walk around with a hat on, or even naked,” said the 56-year-old human rights lawyer.

“It’s not religion that is against women, but patriarchal society. It exerts pressure and uses religion against women,” she said.

“There is not the least contradiction between human rights and Islam, and those who commit terrorist or deadly acts in the name of Islam are not Muslims.”

“There are also many Christians who are murderers. But no one suggests that Christianity made them that way,” she said.

On the nuclear row between Iran and the United Nations atomic watchdog, the Nobel laureate rejected any international interference in Iran’s affairs.

“Iran doesn’t have the atomic bomb. I’m against nuclear weapons whether they be in Iran, Israel or the United States. I’m against foreign intervention. We should be left alone to do what we have to do.”

Tehran has been given until the end of month to agree to accept a wide-ranging inspections regime aimed at determining whether it is developing atomic weapons under the guise of its civilian nuclear programme. —AFP