Shirin Ebadi
Profile in Courage -- and Hope

By Professor F. Kashani-Sabet

Shirin Ebadi was surprised to learn she had beaten out the Pope for this year’s Nobel Peace Prize. She is the first Iranian Muslim woman to win the honor. The state-run media refused to acknowledge the accolade for several hours after the world had already begun to laud the decision by the Norwegian Nobel Committee. Most Iranians had been apprised of the news by the international media, and many openly embraced the choice. The government finally acknowledged her accomplishment with a passing statement. That non-reaction did not go ignored by the Iranian public. When she arrived in Tehran as a Nobel laureate, Ebadi’s compatriots greeted her at the airport with flowers.

Ebadi has dedicated her career to defending the rights of the voiceless and underprivileged in Iran. Since the Revolution of 1979, which supplanted the secular Pahlavi government with Islamic rule, she has striven to protect political dissidents and defend the rights of women and children. Forced out of her position as one of the country’s first female judges, Ebadi resumed work as a human rights lawyer. She has been arrested for her activism, but even the fear of imprisonment and death has not stopped her from continuing the struggle against political oppression.

Working within the strictures of the Islamic legal system, Ebadi has argued that Islam can accommodate and co-exist with modern interpretations of human rights. This conviction has empowered her to effect change in Iran’s rigid political climate, forcing, for instance, a reassessment of child custody and divorce laws. In addition, she has supported Iran’s burgeoning democratic movement by representing students who were attacked in their dormitory several years ago by the police. She has also taken on high profile cases such as the murders of political dissidents Dariush and Parvaneh Foruhar.

In an interview with the Sunday Times of London, Ebadi is quoted as saying, “All I want is legal equality between men and women. What I represent is a small part of a deep-rooted reform movement in Iran that cannot be stopped. In every society there comes a time when people want to be free. That time has
come in Iran.”

Ebadi’s recognition comes at a sensitive moment in the evolution of Iranian society and indeed of the Islamic Middle East. As the United States confronts the unpleasant reality of occupying Iraq, conservative Iranian politicians watch with a mixture of trepidation and defiance. Though firmly ensconced in the government, they are increasingly challenged by reformers seeking to instill democratic values and practices in Iranian politics. Ebadi’s Nobel Prize is a tacit nod of approval for the reform movement as well as a message to the United States to re-think its “Axis of Evil” doctrine and to give grassroots democracy a chance in Iran.

Shirin Ebadi stands out as an exceptional woman whose success and recognition serve to inspire other Muslim women and human rights activists. To those who dare to defy oppression and to challenge the status quo in their societies, her message is one of hope.

Firoozeh Kashani-Sabet is an assistant professor of history who specializes in the history of the modern Middle East, the Ottoman Empire, and Iran. She grew up in Iran and calls herself “culturally Muslim.”