About Shirin Ebadi
Shirin Ebadi is the recipient of the 2003 Nobel Peace Prize. An activist for refugee rights, as well as those of women and children, she is the founder and leader of the Association for Support of Children’s Rights in Iran. She served from 1975-79 as president of the city court of Tehran. She was one the first female judges in Iran, and after the revolution in 1979 she was forced to resign.
Both in her research and as an activist, she is known for promoting peaceful, democratic solutions to serious problems in society. She takes an active part in the public debate and is well-known and admired by the general public in her country for her defense in court of victims of the conservative faction’s attack on freedom of speech and political freedom.
With Islam as her starting point, Ebadi campaigns for peaceful solutions to social problems, and promotes new thinking on Islamic terms. She has displayed great personal courage as a lawyer defending individuals and groups who have fallen victim to a powerful political and legal system that is legitimized through an inhumane interpretation of Islam. Ebadi has shown her willingness and ability to cooperate with representatives of secular as well as religious views.
Ebadi received her law degree from the University of Tehran. She has written a number of academic books and articles focused on human rights. Her autobiography, Iran Awakening: A Memoir of Revolution and Hope, was published in the U.S. in 2006.
(From Les Prix Nobel. The Nobel Prizes 2003, Editor Tore Frängsmyr, [Nobel Foundation], Stockholm, 2004)
Quick Facts
- Shirin Ebadi is an activist and attorney for human rights concerning women and children.
- She was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2003.
- She was a successful attorney in Iran in the 1970s before the Islamic Revolution, when she was demoted to desk clerk because she is a woman.
- She has remained a citizen of Iran after many of her fellow citizens fled to other countries to avoid further oppression.
- She speaks Farsi.
- She lives in Tehran, but travels the world to speak about the rights of women and children.
- Her memoir, Iran Awakening: A Memoir of Revolution and Hope, was published in the U.S. this spring.
