Shirin Ebadi: First Female Muslim Noble Laureate   

The Iranian lawyer and human rights activist Shirin Ebadi was born in 1947. She received a law degree from the University of Tehran. In the years 1975-79 she served as president of the city court of Tehran, one the first female judges in Iran. After the revolution in 1979 she was forced to resign. She now works as a lawyer and also teaches at the University of Tehran.

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 defence in court of victims of the conservative faction's attack on freedom of speech and political freedom.

Married with two grown-up daughters, she is credited with being a driving force behind the reform of family laws in Iran by seeking changes in divorce and inheritance legislation.

But she has also come into conflict with the law in Iran on a personal level, and been held in jail.

Her refusal to be silenced and her willingness to take on politically sensitive legal cases have won the admiration of human rights groups across the world, our analyst says.

"She is a popular figure in Iran and also she's a key figure in reformist movement and like many other key figures in the movement she's been harassed by the conservative forces who control the judiciary, " according to Ziba Mir Hosseini of the School of Oriental Studies in London, a friend of the lawyer.

Politically sensitive

A graduate of Tehran University, Shirin Ebadi was the first female judge in her country, serving as president of the Tehran city court, from 1975.

With the advent of the Islamic republic in 1979, however, she was forced to resign when it was decided that women were not suitable for such posts.

But Shirin Ebadi went on to establish a law practice, taking on the kind of politically sensitive cases many Iranian lawyers would not dream of touching.

Two of her clients, liberal intellectuals Daryoush and Parvaneh Forouhar, were stabbed to death in a series of killings in 1998 which turned out to be the work of "rogue elements" in the Intelligence Ministry.

She also defended women's rights activists in the courts.

The lawyer found herself in the dock in 2000, accused of distributing the video-taped confession of a hardline hooligan who claimed that prominent conservative leaders were instigating physical attacks on pro-reform gatherings and figures.

That won her a suspended jail sentence and a professional ban.

She was also briefly detained after attending a conference in Berlin three years ago on Iran's reforms.

Ebadi represents Reformed Islam, and argues for a new interpretation of Islamic law which is in harmony with vital human rights such as democracy, equality before the law, religious freedom and freedom of speech. As for religious freedom, it should be noted that Ebadi also includes the rights of members of the bahai community, which has had problems in Iran ever since its foundation.

Ebadi is 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. Ebadi 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 (Tehran, 1994), published with support from UNICEF, and History and Documentation of Human Rights in Iran (New York, 2000).

As a lawyer, she 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 1999-2000. She has worked actively - and successfully - to reveal the principals behind the attack on the students at Tehran University in 1999 where several students died. As a consequence, Ebadi has been imprisoned on numerous occasions.

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.

In 2003 she was awarded the Noble Peace prize for all of her efforts.

Her Nobel Peace Prize comes two years after the award of a human rights prize in Norway.

In its statement, the Nobel award committee said it chose her because of her focus on promoting human rights and democracy in her country.

"As a lawyer, judge, lecturer, writer and activist, she has spoken out clearly and strongly in her country, Iran, and far beyond."

The Nobel committee also paid tribute to her courage, noting that she had "never heeded the threat to her own safety".

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