Shirin Ebadi

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Shirin Ebadi is a human rights and democracy activist, and a lawyer, who was awarded the 2003 Nobel Peace Prize. She is the first Iranian and the first Muslim woman to receive the prize. Born in 1947 in Hamadan, Iran, Ebadi received a law degree from the University of Tehran and became the first female judge in Iran. She had to resign her position following the revolution in 1979, when conservative Islamic clerics took control of the country and introduced severe restrictions on the role of women, calling women "too emotional" to hold a high ranking position in the judicial system. Ebadi now lectures law at the University of Tehran, and is a campaigner for strengthening the legal status of children and women. In 1996, Human Rights Watch honored Ms. Ebadi as a leading human rights defender for her contribution to the cause of human rights in Iran.

As a lawyer, Ebadi is known for taking up cases of liberal and dissident figures who have fallen foul of the judiciary. Among others, she has represented the family of Dariush Farouhar, a dissident intellectual who, along with his wife, was found stabbed to death at their home. The couple was among several dissidents who died in a spate of grisly murders that terrorized Iran's intellectual community. Suspicion fell on extremist hardliners determined to put a stop to the more liberal climate fostered by President Khatami, who has championed freedom of speech.

In 2000, Ebadi was accused of distributing the videotaped confession of a hardline hooligan who claimed that prominent conservative leaders were instigating physical attacks on pro-reform gatherings and figures. She received a suspended jail sentence and a professional ban (which was later lifted). The case brought increased focus on Iran from human rights groups abroad. In 2001, Ebadi established a non-governmental organization in Iran, the Center for the Defense of Human Rights. She has written a number of academic books and articles focused on human rights. Among her books translated into English are The Rights of the Child. A Study of Legal Aspects of Children's Rights in Iran (1994, published with support from UNICEF), History and Documentation of Human Rights in Iran (2000) and Iran Awakening: A Memoir of Revolution and Hope (2006).

Time Magazine named Ebadi one of 2004's top 100 most influential people.

Last updated: June 14, 2007.

• Born: 21 June 1947
• Birthplace: Hamedan, Iran
• Best Known As: Winner of the 2003 Nobel Peace Prize

Shirin Ebadin won the 2003 Nobel Peace Prize for her work promoting the rights of women and children in her home country of Iran. Ebadi studied at Tehran University, graduating with a law degree in 1971, and was named Iran's first-ever female judge in 1975. However, she and other female judges were forced to resign when Iran became an Islamic Republic after the revolution of 1979. After years of being denied a law license, Ebadi set up her own legal practice in 1992 and quickly developed a special interest the rights of women, journalists, and others who lacked power under the Iranian regime. She co-founded the Association for Support of Children's Rights (in 1995) and the Human Rights Defense Center (in 2001) and became known outside Iran for her clashes with the country's ruling clerics. The 2003 announcement from the Nobel Committee praised Ebadi for "her efforts for democracy and human rights" and said "She has stood up as a sound professional, a courageous person, and has never heeded the threats to her own safety." Her books include The Rights of the Child (1993), Tradition and Modernity (1995) and The Rights of Women (2002).

Ebadi was the first Iranian and the first Muslim woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize... The 2004 Nobel Peace Prize also went to a woman, Wangari Maathai of Kenya.

Shirin Ebadi (born 1947) has taken great risks while fighting human rights abuses and advocating for children's rights in Iran. Ebadi was the first female judge in her country. Removed from her post after the 1979 Islamic Revolution, she entered private law practice and advocated for those who had been abused, oppressed, or murdered by Iran's new hard - line Islamist government. She is closely watched by the government, which has imprisoned her for her actions. In recognition of her efforts, Ebadi received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2003.

Ebadi was born in the city of Hamedan in northwestern Iran, one of four children of Mohammad Ali Ebadi and his wife, Mino. Ebadi's father was head of Hamedan's registry office and a lecturer in commercial law. The family moved to Tehran, the country's capital, when Ebadi was one-year-old. There, she attended Firuzkuhi primary school and Anoshiravn Dadgar and Reza Shah Kabir secondary schools."We always encouraged our children to be active in society," Ebadi's mother told Time in 2003. "I always wanted to become just like Shirin became." Ebadi attended Tehran University and continued on to law school, receiving her law degree in three - and - a - half years. Following a six - month apprenticeship, she became her country's first female judge in March 1969. She pursued a doctorate in private law at Tehran University, while maintaining her judgeship, graduating with honors in 1971. In 1975, Ebadi became the president of Bench 24 of the Tehran City Court.

Began Human Rights Work

In 1979 an Islamic revolution overthrew the Shah of Iran. Although Iran was a patriarchal country, the Shah's secular monarchy had granted many freedoms to women and down played the influence of religion in the political life of the nation. The new fundamentalist regime, led by Ayatolla Ruholla Khomeini, severely restricted women's rights, and Ebadi and all her fellow female judges were stripped of their positions and reassigned to clerical duties. Ebadi became a clerk in the same court over which she had once presided. Following protests by the demoted women, the female judges were named "experts" in the Justice Department. Still dissatisfied, Ebadi resigned. Her subsequent application for a license to practice law was denied, and she spent the next several years unemployed. During this time, she wrote several influential books and articles focusing on the rights of children and the broader issue of human rights. In 1992, she finally obtained her lawyer's license and set up her own practice in the basement of her home. She also began teaching at Tehran University and established a non-governmental organization, Association for Support of Children's Rights in Iran.

Once she resumed practicing law, Ebadi accepted several high - profile cases centering on human rights abuses, often providing her services at no charge. She defended numerous journalists accused or imprisoned for speaking out against the government and advocating for free expression, and also represented the children of murdered dissidents Dariush and Parveneh Forouhar. In 1994, she was one of 134 signers of the Declaration of Iranian Writers, a petition opposing Iran's fundamentalist government that was regarded as a turning point in the struggle for democracy. In 1999, she represented the family of Ezzat Ebrahiminejad, one of at least three students murdered in a para military attack on a university dormitory following a demonstration protesting restrictions on the press. Ebadi has worked to prove that government - supported forces committed the murders and, as a result of her activities, she was jailed for 25 days in 2000 on charges of defamation. Ebadi spent the time in solitary confinement, although after 18 days she was permitted access to books. "[T]he prison library was available only to men," she explained in an interview with the online Iranian feminist journal Bad Jens. "So they chose some books and brought them to me."

Ebadi also represented the mother of Arin Golshani, a young girl who was tortured to death while in her father's custody. The case was an outgrowth of her efforts to improve the status of children under Iranian law. "The problem with child laws in Iran is that they view children as objects, albeit valuable objects, in relation to their fathers," Ebadi told the UN Chronicle in 2004. For example, she explained, a man may receive the death penalty for murdering a neighbor's child, but only ten years imprisonment for murdering his own. Futhermore, fathers are automatically awarded custody of children in divorce cases. "This is an inappropriate law that forgets about the welfare of children, who do not belong to anyone, and the courts must creatively seek to find the best methods for protecting them," Ebadi said in the UN Chronicle interview.

Awarded Nobel Peace Prize

The government scrutinizes Ebadi, who constantly feels the threat of harm or assassination. In a 2004 interview with The Progressive, she said she had learned to accept such danger: "How can you defy fear? Fear is a human instinct, just like hunger. Whether you like it or not, you become hungry. Similarly with fear. But I have learned to train myself to live with this fear. Every time I am fearful I think to myself, the reason they do this is to discourage me from doing what I do. Hence, if I discontinue my work I will have succumbed to my fears." In 2001, the Norwegian government awarded her the Rafto Prize for her fearless efforts. Two years later, Ebadi's work and the fight for human rights in Iran took the world stage when she received the 2003 Nobel Peace Prize, for which she did not even know she was nominated. Ebadi became the first Iranian and the first Muslim woman to receive the award, which was largely viewed as an international call for reforms in Iran. "In naming Ebadi last week, Norway's Nobel Committee handed a platform to a formidable Iranian voice of conscience, breathed life into the country's dying reform movement and put the Islamic regime on notice," Scott McLeod wrote in the October 20, 2003, issue of Time. "Your name will shine in the history of the Peace Prize," Norwegian Nobel Committee chair Ole Danbolt Mjøs said in his presentation speech. "Let us hope that the prize will also inspire changes in your beloved home country, Iran, as well as in many other parts of the world where people need to hear your clear voice."

Elated students in Tehran distributed flowers and sweets (the name Shirin means "sweet" in Persian) to passersby. The Iranian government, on the other hand, sought to discredit the honor. "This is not worth the fuss," Iranian president Muhammad Khatami said, according to National Review online. "The Nobel Peace Prize is nothing. Prizes for literature and science matter." The state - sponsored television channel did not even relay the news of the award until the end of its broadcast, following the sports roundup and a report on a downed airplane in New Zealand. The channel refused to carry Ebadi's acceptance speech because she did not wear the hijab, a headscarf that the Iranian government requires all Iranian women to wear, in the awards presentation. Ebadi has long refused to wear the hijab, which was first required by the Lebanese government in the 1970s, outside of Iran. "Instead of telling Muslim women to cover their heads we should tell them to use their heads," she remarked, according to National Review online in 2003. "We must not accept anything that is rejected by our reason."

Drew Attention to Islam

In several interviews, Ebadi said the human rights abuses and the oppression of women by the Iranian government contradict the true teachings of Islam. "It is not Islam at fault, but rather the patriarchal culture that uses its own interpretations to justify whatever it wants," she told The Progressive in 2004. "It utilizes psychology to say that women are emotional. It utilizes medical science to say that men's brains are formed in such a way that they are better able to understand concepts. These are all hypotheses. None of this has been proven. Needless to say, the dominant culture is going to insist on an interpretation of religion that happens to favor men." She also sought to counter the common association outside the Muslim world between Islam and violence. "If certain people exploit their religion and commit murder in the name of Islam, we should not put that on account of Islam, just as we did not attribute to Christianity the horrors that were perpetuated in Bosnia, or just as we do not blame Judaism because of Israel's disregard for UN resolutions," she said in a 2004 interview with the UN Chronicle. "How is it, then, that if some Muslims commit an error, that is interpreted in the name of Islam - that is a mistake and certainly there is no winner in this dark contest."

Ebadi has also been vocal about her belief in her country's autonomy, and has sharply criticized the United States government targeting Iran as needing a democratic government. "The American government includes Iran in the 'axis of evil' and is so busy demanding that Iran embrace democracy that it shouts over the heads of millions of Iranians who demand democracy and freedom - often at great peril," Ebadi told Time in 2003. "Every nation needs to select what's best for itself on its own - whether that's Iran, Iraq or in Europe." Ebadi sued the U.S. government in 2004 for blocking publication of her memoirs in the United States as part of a ban on literature from nations subject to U.S. sanctions.

Ebadi has seen progress over her career. "Iranian women . . . already have some impressive accomplishments to their credit," Michael Theodoulou wrote in the Christian Science Monitor in 1999. "With 14 women in Iran's 270 - seat parliament, they enjoy better representation than their sisters in the U.S. Senate. More Iranian women than men have passed university entrance exams in recent years. They are snapping up jobs that were once exclusively male, such as bus driving." Despite her ability to effect change and the increased visibility of her work, Ebadi, who is married with two daughters in college, told the UN Chronicle she had no interest in seeking a government position. "I have repeatedly stated that I have no intention of taking part in factional disputes, or of direct participation in governmental affairs," she said. "A human rights advocate would be hard pressed to be self - critical if he or she is within the government; that person should remain within the fabric of society. I have always been a judicial counsel, defending the innocent, political prisoners, women and children within my capacity. I shall remain as such in the future, an attorney committed to human rights."

Periodicals

Christian Science Monitor, October 15, 1999.

Progressive, September 2004.

Time, October 20, 2003.

UN Chronicle, March - May, 2004.

Online

"A Short Visit with Shirin Ebadi," Bad Jens,http://www.badjens.com (December 4, 2004).

"Celebrating Shirin Ebadi," National Review Online, October 17, 2003, http://www.nationalreview.com. (November 29, 2004).

"Shirin Ebadi," Biography Resource Center Online, Gale Group, 2003, http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/BioRC (February 11, 2005).

"Shirin Ebadi - Autobiography," Nobel Prize Website, http://www.nobelprize.org (November 29, 2004).

"The Nobel Peace Prize 2003," (presentation speech) Nobel Prize Web site, http://nobelprize.org (November 29, 2004).

For more information on Shirin Ebadi, visit Britannica.com.

1947 -

Iranian attorney and human rights advocate.

Shirin Ebadi was born in 1947 and graduated in 1969 from the Law Faculty, Tehran University. Ebadi became one of the first female judges in Iran. After the 1979 Iranian Revolution, when women judges were dismissed, she lost her position but remained an employee of the Ministry of Justice until 1984, when she took early retirement. In 1992 Ebadi obtained a license to practice as an attorney, and she soon emerged as the leading figure in the Iranian human rights movement. In 1994, along with other women, Ebadi founded the Society for Protecting the Rights of the Child, which has lobbied parliament to introduce legal reforms in line with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. She has defended many victims of human rights violations. In 1998 she was defense lawyer for the families of the victims of the political assassinations of writers and intellectuals by rogue elements of the Ministry of Intelligence. Ebadi's vocal defense of human rights has antagonized the Iranian judiciary, who arrested her in June 2000. She was accused of producing and distributing a videocassette that allegedly "disturbs public opinion" and implicates certain senior officials in atrocities against reformist personalities and organizations. She was tried in closed court, sentenced to a suspended sentence, and banned from practicing law, but this sentence was overturned in a court of appeal. Ebadi has published many books in Persian and has received many awards, including the 1996 Human Rights Watch Award and the Rafto Prize for Human Rights 2001, in recognition of her sustained fight for human rights and democracy in Iran. In October 2003 the Norwegian Nobel Committee awarded Ebadi the Nobel Peace Prize for 2003, citing her efforts for democracy, human rights, and the rights of women and children.

Bibliography

Ebadi, Shirin. The Rights of the Child: A Study of Legal Aspects ofChildren's Rights in Iran, translated by M. Zaimaran. Tehran: UNICEF, 1994.

Kim, Uichol; Aasen, Henriette Sinding; and Ebadi, Shirin, eds. Democracy, Human Rights and Islam in Modern Iran: Psychological, Social and Cultural Perspectives. Bergen, Norway: Fagbokforlaget, 2003.

— ZIBA MIR-HOSSEINI

شیرین عبادی Shirin Ebadi
Shirin Ebadi in 2005
Born	June 21 1947 (1947--) (age 60) Hamedan, Iran
Residence	Tehran, Iran
Nationality	Iranian
Occupation	lawyer and founder of Children's Rights Support Association
Religious stance	Shia Islam
Spouse	married
Children	2

Shirin Ebadi (Persian: شیرین عبادی - Širin Ebâdi; born 21 June 1947) is an Iranian lawyer, human rights activist and founder of Children's Rights Support Association in Iran. On December 10, 2003, Ebadi was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her significant and pioneering efforts for democracy and human rights, especially women's and children's rights. She is the first Iranian and the first Muslim woman to receive the prize.

Life and early career

Ebadei was born in Hamadan, Iran. Her father, Mohammad Ali Ebadi, was the city's chief notary public and professor of commercial law. The family moved to Tehran in 1948.

Ebadi was admitted to the law department, University of Tehran in 1965 and upon graduation in 1969 passed the qualification exams to become a judge. After a six-month internship period, she officially started her judging career in March 1970. She continued her studies in University of Tehran in the meanwhile and received a master's degree in law in 1971. In 1975, she became the first woman to preside over a legislative court.

Following the Iranian revolution in 1979, conservative clerics insisted that Islam prohibits women from becoming judges and Ebadi was demoted to a secretarial position at the branch where she had previously presided. She and other female judges protested and were assigned to the slightly higher position of "law expert." She eventually requested early retirement as the situation remained unchanged.

As her applications were repeatedly rejected, Ebadi was not able to practice as a lawyer until 1993, while she already had a law office permit. She used this free time to write books and many articles in Iranian periodicals, which made her known widely.

Ebadi as a lawyer

Ebadi now lectures law at the University of Tehran and is a campaigner for strengthening the legal status of children and women, the latter of which played a key role in the May 1997 landslide presidential election of the reformist Mohammad Khatami.

As a lawyer, she is known for taking up cases of liberal and dissident figures who have fallen foul of the judiciary, one of the bastions of hardline power in Iran. She has represented the family of Dariush Forouhar, a dissident intellectual and politician who was found stabbed to death at his home. His wife, Parvaneh Eskandari, was also killed at the same time.

The couple were among several dissidents who died in a spate of grisly murders that terrorized Iran's intellectual community. Suspicion fell on extremist hard-liners determined to put a stop to the more liberal climate fostered by President Khatami, who championed freedom of speech. The murders were found to be committed by a team of the employees of the Iranian Ministry of Intelligence, whose head, Saeed Emami, committed suicide in jail before being brought to court.

Ebadi also represented the family of Ezzat Ebrahimnezhad, the only officially accepted case of murder in the Iranian student protests of July 1999. In the process, in 2000 Ebadi was accused of distributing the videotaped confession of Amir Farshad Ebrahimi, a former member of one of the main pressure lobby forces, Ansar-e Hezbollah. Ebrahimi accused his former associates of attacking members of President Khatami's cabinet on orders of high-level conservative authorities. Ebadi claimed that she had only videotaped Amir Farshad Ebrahimi's confessions in order to present them to the court. This case was named "Tape makers" by hardliners who also were/are controlling the judiciary system in order to decrease the credibility of his videotaped deposition. Ebadi and Rohami were sentenced to five years in jail and suspension of their law licenses for sending Ebrahimi's videotaped deposition to Islamic President Khatami and the head of the Islamic judiciary. The sentences were later vacated by the Islamic judiciary's supreme court, but they did not forgive Ebarahimi's videotaped confession and sentenced him to 48 months jail, including 16 months in solitary confinement. This case brought increased focus on Iran from human rights groups abroad.

Ebadi has also defended various cases of child abuse cases and a few cases dealing with bans of periodicals (including the cases of Habibollah Peyman, Abbas Marufi, and Faraj Sarkouhi). She has also established two non-governmental organizations in Iran, the Society for Protecting the Rights of the Child (SPRC) and the Defenders of Human Rights Center (DHRC).

She also drafted the original text of a law against physical abuse of children, which was passed by the Iranian parliament in 2002.

Nobel Peace Prize

On October 10 2003, Ebadi was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her courageous efforts for democracy and human rights, especially for the rights of women and children. ^[1] The selection committee praised her as a "courageous person" who "has never heeded the threat to her own safety".^[2]

The selection of Ebadi by the Norwegian Nobel committee is thought by some observers to represent an implicit criticism of American policy in the Middle East, in particular the 2003 Invasion of Iraq.^{[citation needed]} George W. Bush has referred to Iran as a member of the axis of evil.

At a press conference shortly after the Peace Prize announcement, Ebadi herself explicitly rejected foreign interference in the country's affairs: "The fight for human rights is conducted in Iran by the Iranian people, and we are against any foreign intervention in Iran." ^{[3] [4]}

Subsequently, Ebadi has openly defended the Islamic regime's nuclear development programme: "Aside from being economically justified, it has become a cause of national pride for an old nation with a glorious history. No Iranian government, regardless of its ideology or democratic credentials, would dare to stop the program."^[5]

The decision of Nobel committee surprised some observers worldwide - then Pope John Paul II was the bookies' favourite to scoop the prestigious award amid feverish speculation that he was nearing death. Some observers, mostly supporters of Pope John Paul II, viewed her selection as a calculated and political one, along the lines of the selection of Lech Wałęsa and Mikhail Gorbachev, among others, for the Peace Award. They claimed that none of Ebadi's previous activities were directly related to the stated goals for the award of the Nobel Peace Prize, as originally stated by Alfred Nobel, and that according to the will of Alfred Nobel the prize should have been awarded "to the person who shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between the nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses".

She presented a book entitled, 'Democracy, human rights, and Islam in modern Iran: Psychological, social and cultural perspectives' (2003,Bergen: Fagbokforlaget), to the Nobel Committee. The volume documents the historical and cultural basis of democracy and human rights from Cyrus and Darius, 2,500 years ago to Muhammad Mossadeq, a popular Prime Minister of modern Iran. He was overthrown by the American CIA and British MI6 in 1953 which then re-installed the monarchy of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.

In Iran, conservatives and fundamentalists were either silent or offensive about the selection by calling it a political act. Iranian state media waited hours to report the Nobel committee's decision -- and then only as the last item on the radio news update. President Khatami has stated that although the scientific Nobels are important, the Peace Prize "is not important and is political". Khatami’s words raised objections in the general public, resulting in Vice President Mohammad Ali Abtahi stating that "abusing the President's words about Mrs. Ebadi is tantamount to abusing the prize bestowed on her for political considerations". President Khatami's comment, downgrading the historic significance of the Nobel Peace Prize, has angered many Iranians some of whom view his reaction as a sign of jealousy, as he was a Nobel Prize nominee for his dialogue proposal in 2001.

After the Nobel prize

In November 2003, she declared that she would provide legal representation for the family of the murdered freelance photographer Zahra Kazemi.

As of 2004, she lives with her husband, an electrical engineer, and has two daughters who are university students.

In the spring of 2005, Ebadi taught a course on "Islam and Human Rights" at the University of Arizona's James E. Rogers College of Law in Tucson, Arizona.

In fall of 2005, Ebadi presented a lecture titled "The Role of Women in World Peace" in a Woman's Study Review held at The City University of New York (CUNY), Lehman College.

In 2005 Ebadi was voted the world's 12th leading public intellectual in The 2005 Global Intellectuals Poll by Prospect magazine (UK)

In 2006, Random House released her first book for a Western audience, Iran Awakening: A Memoir of Revolution and Hope, with Azadeh Moaveni. A reading of the book was serialised as BBC Radio 4's Book of the Week in September 2006. American novelist David Ebershoff served as the book's editor.

In May 2006, she delivered the Commencement Address at the University of Michigan Law School in Ann Arbor, Michigan and a speech at UC Berkeley.

In September 2006, her presentation of a lecture entitled "Iran Awakening: Human Rights, Women and Islam" drew a sold-out crowd at the University of San Diego's Joan B. Kroc Distinguished Lecture Series.

On April 12, 2007, she gave a presentation on "Peace and Social Justice in a Global World: The Role of Women and Islam" at the Saint Louis University, Saint Louis, MO. She was the Keynote speaker at The Seventh Annual Atlas Week, a week for global awareness.

On April 30, 2007, she gave a presentation on "True Islam: Human Rights and The Roles of Faith" at Loyola University Chicago, Chicago, IL. She also received an honorary doctorate from the university.

On May 1, 2007 Shirin appeared at the Performing Arts Center at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, at the request of the Persian Students of Cal Poly to give a lecture which mainly dealt with Democracy, Women's Rights, and American relations in Iran.

On May 17, 2007 Ebadi announced that she would defend the Iranian American scholar Haleh Esfandiari, who is jailed in Tehran.[1]

On May 18th 2007 Ebadi presided over the Commencement ceremony of The New School at Madison Square Garden in New York.She gave a speech in Persian which was translated by a translator and she also received an honorary PhD from The New School.

Publications

Iran Awakening, Shirin Ebadi's memoir.

Books written by Shirin Ebadi which have been translated into English:

• History and Documentation of Human Rights in Iran (New York, 2000, ISBN 0-933273-40-1)
• The Rights of the Child. A Study of Legal Aspects of Children's Rights in Iran (Tehran, 1994)
• Iran Awakening: A Memoir of Revolution and Hope (New York, 2006, ISBN 1-4000-6470-8)
• Democracy, human rights, and Islam in modern Iran: Psychological, social and cultural perspectives. (Bergen, 2003, ISBN 82-7674-922-4)

Law suit against the United States

In 2004 Shirin Ebadi filled a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Treasury because of restrictions she faced over publishing her memoir in the United States. American trade laws include prohibitions on writers from embargoed countries. The law also banned American literary agent Wendy Strothman from working with Ebadi. Azar Nafisi wrote a letter in support of Shirin Ebadi. Nafisi said that the law infringes on the first amendment. ^[6] After a long legal battle, Shirin Ebadi won and was able to publish her memoir in the United States.^[7]

Law suit over non-publication

According to the Associated Press, on August 27, 2007, Shirin Ebadi was sued by a Canadian author and political analyst, Shahir Shahidsaless—who writes and publishes in Farsi—in U.S. District Court in Manhattan saying she reneged on getting a publisher for a book they had co-written, titled "A Useful Enemy" after she was warned that the book's publication might spoil sales of her other books. Subsequently, Ebadi referred to self-interested political motivations as her reason for breaching her agreement with Shahidsaless to publish the already-completed book as a co-author, the lawsuit said. Shahidsaless said Ebadi suggested in November 2004 that they co-write a book in response to Samuel Huntington's "Clash of Civilizations" theory, which some have used to argue that Islamic and Western societies are culturally incompatible.

Honors and Awards

• Awarded plate by Human Rights Watch, 1996
• Official spectator of Human Rights Watch, 1996
• Awarded Rafto Prize, Human Rights Prize in Norway, 2001
• Nobel Peace Prize, 2003
• International Democracy Award, 2004
• ‘Lawyer of the Year’ award, 2004
• Doctor of Laws, Brown University, 2004
• Doctor of Laws, University of British Columbia, 2004
• Honorary doctorate, University of Maryland, College Park, 2004
• Honorary doctorate, University of Toronto, 2004
• Honorary doctorate, Simon Fraser University, 2004
• Honorary doctorate, University of Akureyri, 2004
• Honorary doctorate, Australian Catholic University, 2005
• Honorary doctorate, University of San Francisco, 2005
• Honorary doctorate, Concordia University, 2005
• Honorary doctorate, The University of York, 2005
• Honorary doctorate, Université Jean Moulin in Lyon, 2005
• UCI Citizen Peacebuilding Award, 2005
• The Golden Plate Award by the Academy of Achievement, 2005
• Legion of Honor award, 2006
• Honorary doctorate, Loyola University Chicago, 2007
• Honorary Doctorate The New School University, 2007

See also

• Iranian women
• List of famous Persian women
• Intellectual movements in Iran
• Persian women's movement
• Islamic feminism
• List of Iranian Intellectuals

External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:

Shirin Ebadi

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Shirin Ebadi

• (Persian) Ebadi's official website
• (Persian) Ebadi's short autobiography
• Shirin Ebadi at the Nobel Prize website
• Shirin Ebadi's autobiography on the Nobel Prize website
• Shirin Ebadi's Nobel lecture
• Quotes from Shirin Ebadi Speeches
• Nermeen Shaikh, AsiaSource Interview with Shirin Ebadi
• Picture Gallery
• TIME.com: 10 Questions for Shirin Ebadi
• Shirin Ebadi and her view on Nuclear Weapons
• Shirin Ebadi talks about her autobiography, Iran Awakening at the Carnegie Council.
• "Iran's Quiet Revolution" Winter 2007 article from Ms. magazine about activism and feminism in Iran.

References

1. ^ Nobelprize.org: The Nobel Peace Prize 2003, last retrieved on 2007-10-12
2. ^ bbc.co.uk: Nobel winner's plea to Iran, last retrieved on 2007-10-12
3. ^ Washington Post: Nobels With a Message, last retrieved on 2007-10-12
4. ^ Working for Change: Eyes off the prize, last retrieved on 2007-10-12
5. ^ The Sydney Morning Herald: Sunnis fear US missteps will bolster Tehran's influence, last retrieved on 2007-10-12
6. ^ http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4204087
7. ^ http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4235765

• Kim, U., Aasen, H. S., & Ebadi, S. (2003). Democracy, human rights, and Islam in modern Iran: Psychological, social and cultural perspectives. Bergen: Fagbokforlaget.

Nobel Peace Prize Laureates
Kofi Annan / United Nations (2001) • Jimmy Carter (2002) • Shirin Ebadi (2003) • Wangari Maathai (2004) • International Atomic Energy Agency / Mohamed ElBaradei (2005) • Grameen Bank / Muhammad Yunus (2006) • Al Gore / Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (2007)
Complete roster | (1901-1925) | (1926-1950) | (1951-1975) | (1976-2000) | (2001-2025)

Persondata
NAME	Ebadi, Shirin
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	شیرین عبادی (Persian)
SHORT DESCRIPTION	Iranian lawyer and human rights activist
DATE OF BIRTH	21 June 1947
PLACE OF BIRTH	Hamadan, Iran
DATE OF DEATH	living
PLACE OF DEATH

frp:Ch·irine Ebadipms:Širin Ebâdi

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