Shirin Ebadi

Nobel Peace Prize 2003

Human Rigths activist

Shirin Ebadi conferencias, premio nobel, derechos humanos, Irán
English

An Iranian lawyer and human rights activist, Shirin Ebadi was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2003 for her significant and pioneering efforts for democracy and human rights, especially the rights of women and children. She is the first Iranian and the first Muslim woman to receive the prize.

As a researcher and activist, Shirin Ebadi is known for promoting peaceful and 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 the legal defense of victims of the conservative faction’s attack on freedom of speech and political freedom.

Along with Iranian-American co-author Azadeh Moaveni, Ebadi is the author of the memoirs Iran Awakening: One Woman’s Journey to Reclaim Her Life and Country and Iran Awakening: A Memoir of Revolution and Hope. Her latest, The Golden Cage: Three Brothers, Three Choices, One Destiny, was published in 2011.

Shirin Ebadi has also written a number of academic books and articles focused on human rights, including The Rights of the Child: A Study of Legal Aspects of Children’s Rights in Iran, published with support from UNICEF, and History and Documentation of Human Rights in Iran. An activist for the rights of refugees, women, and children, she is the founder and leader of the Association for Support of Children’s Rights in Iran.

Shirin Ebadi argues for a new interpretation of Islamic law that is in harmony with vital human rights such as democracy, equality before the law, religious freedom, and freedom of speech. She also advocates for the rights of the Bahá’i religious community, which has long struggled with a variety of problems and prejudices in Iran.

As a lawyer, Shirin Ebadi has been involved in a number of controversial political cases. She was the attorney of the families of the writers and intellectuals who were victims of the serial murders in 1999 and 2000. She has successfully worked to reveal the principals behind the attack on the students at Tehran University in 1999.

As a consequence of her activism, Shirin Ebadi has been imprisoned on numerous occasions. She campaigns for peaceful solutions to social problems and promotes new thinking on Islamic terms. Shirin Ebadi 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. She has shown her willingness and ability to cooperate with representatives of both secular and religious views.

Shirin Ebadi earned a law degree from the University of Tehran. In the years between1975 and 1979, she served as president of the city court of Tehran—one of the first female judges in Iran. After the revolution in 1979, she was forced to resign.

Conferences

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The Golden Cage -2011

For over fifty years the Shah Pahlavi dynasty ruled Iran until Ayatollah Khomeini's 1979 Islamic Revolution seized power and began its own reign of tyranny. The questions about the revolution shape The Golden Cage while the answers shed light on Islamic Iran's current events and tell us why it strives for nuclear energy, chants "Death to Israel," and claims to be the most powerful force in the Middle East and Muslim world.

History perhaps is best described through life stories we each can hold dearly. The Golden Cage is one such story about three brothers the author knew through their sister, Pari, a childhood friend. Each brother subscribes to a different political ideology that tears Iran and their lives apart. As Pari observes, her brothers live deluded lives in golden cages of ideology. These words mark the beginning of this story, illuminating the multifaceted, oppressive Iran of today and years past.

The Golden Cage -2011

Iran Awakening: One Woman's Journey to Reclaim Her Life and Country -2007

The moving, inspiring memoir of one of the great women of our times, Shirin Ebadi, winner of the 2003 Nobel Peace Prize and advocate for the oppressed, whose spirit has remained strong in the face of political persecution and despite the challenges she has faced raising a family while pursuing her work.

Best known in this country as the lawyer working tirelessly on behalf of Canadian photojournalist, Zara Kazemi—raped, tortured and murdered in Iran—Dr. Ebadi offers us a vivid picture of the struggles of one woman against the system. The book movingly chronicles her childhood in a loving, untraditional family, her upbringing before the Revolution in 1979 that toppled the Shah, her marriage and her religious faith, as well as her life as a mother and lawyer battling an oppressive regime in the courts while bringing up her girls at home.

Outspoken, controversial, Shirin Ebadi is one of the most fascinating women today. She rose quickly to become the first female judge in the country; but when the religious authorities declared women unfit to serve as judges she was demoted to clerk in the courtroom she had once presided over. She eventually fought her way back as a human rights lawyer, defending women and children in politically charged cases that most lawyers were afraid to represent. She has been arrested and been the target of assassination, but through it all has spoken out with quiet bravery on behalf of the victims of injustice and discrimination and become a powerful voice for change, almost universally embraced as a hero.

Her memoir is a gripping story—a must-read for anyone interested in Zara Kazemi’s case, in the life of a remarkable woman, or in understanding the political and religious upheaval in our world.

Iran Awakening: One Woman's Journey to Reclaim Her Life and Country -2007

Refugee Rights in Iran- 2008

Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, lawyer, and human rights activist, Shirin Ebadi examines the legal aspects of life as a refugee in Iran. Controversial issues such as the right to education, property, and inheritance are addressed in detail through a comparative study of Iranian and international refugee law.

This book will be of great interest to anyone who helps states and to international organizations that formulate laws that can accommodate the needs of refugees.

Refugee Rights in Iran- 2008