TOKYO, Nov. 25 (UPI) -- Shirin Ebadi, the first Muslim woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize, said wearing a headscarf should be left to the discretion of Muslim women.
The Iranian lawyer and human rights activist, on a visit to Japan, commented Wednesday on the recent discord in some European countries over Islamic culture. France has banned most religious garb -- including the headscarves -- from public schools.
"I believe women shouldn't be forced to wear chador (scarf) or any other kind of hejab (scarf). At the same time, I believe they shouldn't be forced to remove it from their heads. This is Muslim women's choice," she told a Tokyo news conference.
She stressed democracy should be created within a nation and not bestowed by other countries thorough military force, Yomiuri Shimbun reported Thursday.
"Democracy is not a bomb to be dropped by bombers. Democracy is a culture. This culture should be created within the nation," she said.
Ebadi also stressed the importance of a non-nuclear world.
"The world doesn't need nuclear weapons," she said. "No country in the world needs the atomic bomb, neither Iran nor Israel nor any other countries."
