Politics & Power Quote by Shirin Ebadi

Ebadi’s line is a deft refusal of a trap authoritarians love: if you oppose us, you must be with our enemies. In one breath she names the regime’s favorite smear (domestic critics as foreign agents) and, in the next, punctures it with a cool, almost weary punchline: the “funny thing” is that the accusation collapses on contact with reality. It’s not comedy as entertainment; it’s comedy as exposure.

The context matters. Speaking in the shadow of the Bush era, when “human rights” was often invoked as a justification for war and regime change, Iranian fundamentalists had a ready-made script. Dissent becomes treason; accountability becomes collaboration. Ebadi, a lawyer and human-rights advocate, understands that politics is also courtroom theater: the prosecution doesn’t need evidence if it can poison the jury.

Her subtext is sharper than a simple anti-Bush stance. She’s defending the autonomy of civil society against two kinds of coercion at once: the Iranian state’s internal repression and the U.S. administration’s geopolitical branding. By insisting that activists and Bush “can never be situated in the same group,” she’s drawing a moral boundary that rejects being drafted into anyone’s propaganda - whether it’s Tehran’s paranoia or Washington’s self-flattering narrative.

What makes the quote work is its precision. She doesn’t argue policy point by point; she attacks the category error. Human rights activism is a method and a discipline. State power, especially when it weaponizes rights talk, is an instrument. Putting them in the same “camp” is the lie she’s trained to litigate.