December 2, 2003. Copyright, 2003, Graphic News. All rights reserved

Profile of Iranian lawyer and Nobel laureate, Shirin Ebadi
By Joanna Griffin

LONDON, December 2, Graphic News:  On Shirin EbadiÕs desk in the heart of Tehran sits a minature Statue of Liberty. But it would be foolish to presume that the lawyer and Nobel prize winner dreams of trading her native Iran for America. For this champion of democracy, Islam has always been the starting point.

It was EbadiÕs progressive interpretation of Islamic law that led the Nobel committee to award the human rights activist the prize for peace in October. The committee noted that she Òargues 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.Ó

Despite the international accolade, EbadiÕs fortunes have always been and remain tied to those of her people. Born in 1947, the petite, soft-spoken woman gained a law degree from Tehran University and was president of the city court from 1975 until the Islamic Revolution swept over the country in 1979, and women were deemed unfit to hold such positions.

Almost overnight, Iranian women saw their ambitions thwarted as the conservative ayatollahs instituted draconian laws that restricted their freedom of movement and undermined their rights. Ebadi, IranÕs first woman judge, lost her job but found a new purpose -- the married mother of two daughters became a leading figure in the battle to overturn inequal family laws.

The road back -- under reformist cleric Mohammad Khatami, who won the 1997 election -- has been an arduous and at times dangerous one. But Ebadi and others have made key gains. Today the 290-seat parliament includes more than a dozen women. Women perform jobs that were previously unthinkable, such as driving buses and working as police officers.

There is still a way to go. Iranian women need their husbandsÕ permission to travel abroad and their court testimony is worth half that of menÕs, for example. Ebadi, the first Muslim woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize, now has a bigger stick with which to beat the authorities, but one senses that nothing can distract her from her wider purpose. Though best known for her work for women and children, she has a reputation for going where others fear to tread.

EbadiÕs fearlessness has made her a thorn in the side of the repressive regime. After the brutal 1999 crackdown on dissidents, Ebadi served as a lawyer for the prominent couple Dariush and Parveneh Farouhar, whose deaths were blamed on rogue agents of the intelligence ministry. Her involvement in the case won her a three-week jail sentence, and widespread respect. 

The ayatollahs have accused Ebadi of attempting to single-handedly undermine the Islamic Revolution, and her Nobel prize received scant attention in the conservative press. To the well-wishers who gathered at Tehran airport to welcome home the lecturer and activist from Paris, however, the award was a sign that their voices were reaching the outside world.

Ebadi used publicity surrounding the Nobel to reiterate her call for a new intepretation of Islamic law that embraces democracy, telling Paris daily Le Monde, ÒThe Islamic Republic cannot continue if it does not reform.Ó There will be no more revolutions, Ebadi said. She might have added that -- with her engagement -- there will be steady progress.
/ENDS