I was invited by the Nobel Peace Prize Committee to participate in the award ceremony on December 10, 2003 in Oslo. The reason I was invited was because I had received the highest decoration a foreigner can receive while serving as a senior diplomat here in September 1968. I was posted in Oslo for five years and I did my best to promote good relations between Iran and Norway. Therefore I am considered the most prominent/senior Iranian living in Norway. That is the reason that I was officially invited to attend the ceremony.

I attended the ceremony and recorded as much of Shirin Ebadi's brief statement as I could put down and is included here. There was strict security measures including the sort of scanners used in airports and metal detectors which took an instant dislike to the brass buttons on my blazer setting off the alarm. We were all thoroughly checked before we were allowed in. The ceremony started at one o'clock in the afternoon.  

H.M. King Harald of Norway was indisposed as he was going undergoing cancer treatment so H.R.H. Hakoon the Crown Prince along with his mother H. M. Queen Sonia and  his Sister Martha were present.

The atmosphere, as it happens at this kind of the occasions was solemn. Only that after the prize was presented to Shirin Ebady by the head of the peace Prize Committe that something unexpected happened which was when Queen Sonia and Shirin Ebady embraced one another shedding some tears providing some drama to the occasion.

It was not possible to have a meeting with Shirin Ebady owing to the tight security arrangements. Nobody was permitted to approach her and I did not get a chance to talk to her personally.  The ceremony finished at about 3 PM.

Outside the hall I was approached by a TV camera crew from Azadi TV of California and I made a short statement about the event.  My statement to them was:  "After almost 50 years of anti Iranian propaganda by the media, this event has opened a new opportunity for all Persians all over the world to assert themselves as a civilized progressive people in our small world.  At the same time we Iranians can not expect much from Ms. Ebady due to the well known brutality of the present regime in Iran. We should remember that she is going back to Iran and we do not know what is in store for her. Moreover the same Europe who stood behind  Lech Walesa of Poland to overthrow the communism is today flirting with the Islamic Republic of Iran for their own gain rather than considering their long term interest by siding with the oppressed Persian people."

Unfortunately the complete text of her speech was not available at the time but it was made available later, please see the links at the end.

My notes of Shirin Ebadi's statement:

Iran's Shirin Ebadi, the first Muslim woman to win the prize, did not mention the U.S. by name but was clearly referring to Washington and its allies in a speech prepared for delivery at the official award ceremony in Oslo, Norway.

Ebadi recognized for her fight for children's and women's rights in Iran, collected a gold medal and the $1.4 million award from the head of the Norwegian Nobel Committee at Oslo City Hall.

She said "In the past two years, some states have violated the universal principles and laws of human rights by using the events of September 11 and the war on international terrorism as a pretext. Regulations restricting human rights and basic freedoms ... have been justified and given legitimacy under the cloak of the war on terrorism,"

Ebadi also slammed Washington for ignoring U.N. resolutions in the Middle East while using them as a pretext for launching a war in Iraq. She specifically referred to the Palestine. And added, "Why is it that in the past 35 years, dozens of U.N. resolutions concerning the occupation of the Palestinian territories by the state of Israel have not been implemented properly?" "Yet, in the past 12 years, the state and people of Iraq, once on the recommendation of the Security Council, and the second time in spite of U.N. Security Council opposition, were subjected to attack, military assault, economic sanctions, and ultimately, military occupation?"

U.S. President George W. Bush's administration launched the Iraq war in March saying President Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. But the war did not have explicit backing from the Security Council.

She also criticized what she called breaches of the Geneva conventions at the United States' Guantanamo military prison in Cuba.

Nobel experts said the five members of the Nobel committee, who included three women, probably chose Ebadi as a way of promoting change in Iran.

Shrin Ebadi said, that she is proud that she is Iranian descendant of the Cyrus the Great who made the first human rights declaration for the world 2500 years ago.

Shirin added that the people of Iran are faced with the challenge of thousand years old religious tradition of Patrimony (MARD SALARY).

She said, that we Iranians mixed Islam with our own culture which advocates humanity & non violence, therefore I am Iranian Moslem adhering to our very long & ancient cultural traditions.
 

She then recited the famous poetry of Saadi, (BANI ADAM AAZAE YEK DIGARAND). Human Kinds are the limbs of one body.....

Ebadi said, that this Prize will help & enhance the aspiration of all the Moslem women, and will enable them to start the process of gaining their rightful place, which they have lost for the last one thousand years. It is not possible to go along with the Patrimonial tradition, especially in the Moslem world till eternity.

She added that unfortunately the revolution did not fulfil the aspiration of the Iranian people. Fortunately the era of dictatorships is over, in the entire world and she did not think that Iran is so much different in that respect.

Links:

Nobel Peace Prize 2003 Website
Video of the presentation ceremony (RealOne Player)
Shirin Ebadi's Speech: Persian and English Translation, view other reports of the ceremony in  Persian and English