Shirin Ebadi was born June 21, 1947 in Hamadan (western Iran) in the family of a prominent Iranian lawyer and professor of commercial law. She graduated from the Law Faculty of the University of Tehran. From 1975 to 1979 until the Islamic Revolution in Iran Shirin was the president of the city court of Tehran and she also was the first female-judge in this country. However, after the revolution, just like all other women she had to leave her post. But Ebadi did not leave the judicial system and took the position of clerk of the court. According to the concepts of the new post-revolutionary power, a woman did not have the right to make decisions that are mandatory for men (Janet Brown, 2007).
Notwithstanding, a strong woman did not accept the new order and she resigned. For more than 10 years Ebadi had not been engaged in her labor of love. All this time she spent with benefit, she had written numerous books and articles devoted to the struggle for human rights, many of which have been translated into other languages. Only in 1993 she finally managed to get permission to open legal advice bureau; and at the same time, she began a teaching practice at the University of Tehran.
Ebadi has acted as a lawyer in different famous trials in Iran. She defended the interests of clients in high-profile cases with political overtones. The woman also defended the families of writers and public figures who were victims of serial murders in 1999-2000. Shirin has repeatedly opposed the Iranian regime to protect the students, particularly she was actively involved in the investigation of the suppression of student protests at Tehran University in 1999, during which some people were killed and wounded. As a result, she often was arrested on trumped-up charges by the authorities. In addition, Ebadi led a number of cases over the ban of Iranian newspapers and consistently defended Iran's persecuted supporters of the Bahai religion.
Ebadi is a prominent doctor of many Western universities, including the University of Toronto, British Columbia, York, Australian Catholic and others. Currently, Shirin works as a lawyer and teaches at the University of Tehran. She is known as a person, who promotes peaceful and democratic solutions to the serious social problems. She takes an active part in the public debate, and is known and loved by the general public.
In 2003, Ebadi won the Nobel Peace Prize for her activity of protection of human rights and democracy in Iran. The Norwegian Nobel Prize Committee paid tribute to Shirin Ebadi as a lawyer with a passion for the protection of women and children in Iran and around the world. There were active speculations on the topic of the Nobel Peace Prize winner, not only on the part of analysts, but also the leading bookmakers. At the rates made by participants "Nobel tote", the Pope has overtaken the Czech president Vaclav Havel. According to a statement from Australian bookmaker Dzheralda Deffi, betting on John Paul II was made in the ratio of 5 to 1. On Havel, the initiator of "velvet revolution" in the Czech Republic put in a ratio of 7 to 1. And, although, there was no betting on Shirin Ebadi's getting the prize, Ebadi was ahead of 165 candidates, including Pope John Paul II and former Czech President Vaclav Havel.
The news triggered a different reaction throughout the world. Lech Walesa, the former Polish President and Nobel Peace Prize winner in 1983 called the committee's decision a "big mistake" and said that the winner was John Paul II.
In Iran the news about getting this famous Peace Prize were also perceived differently. Of course, the award of the Nobel Prize is an act of political importance, so the government was supposed to express its opinion of the matter. The confused comments of Abdolly Ramezanzade, the press secretary of the Iranian government, showed how awkward the situation was, taking into account the public reaction, Tehran regime as it is and the events that took place earlier in the country.
Having noted that he was going to speak on his own behalf, and not on the behalf of the government, Abdolly Ramezanzade said to reporters that he was pleased that the Iranian woman managed to get recognized by the international community for her activities in defense of peace, and he also hoped her activity would be assessed and appreciated better in Iran.
In fact, the Iranian authorities had to honor the decision of the Nobel Committee as an honorary award of the woman-lawyer, who was sentenced in her own country to three years' imprisonment (suspended) and five years of deprivation of civil rights.
Shirin Ebadi is not so much an activist for peace in the strict sense, as a human rights activist, particularly, the fighter for the rights of women and children. Of course, Ebadi was not the first Iranian woman, the merits of whom were marked by the international community. However, handing her the highest award of the certificate of recognition is the courage of Iranian women who oppose the autocratic Iranian regime (Azadeh Moaveni, 2006).
Iranian state television has been waiting for four hours before reporting the news that the Nobel Prize was awarded to Shirin Ebadi; and the official IRNA news paid a total of eight rows only.
Asadolla Badamshian, the chairman of the political committee of the Coalition of Islamic associations (the leading conservative movement in the country) said that if the prize was awarded for services rendered by reformers to Western policy, it was meanness. And referring to the slain of Anwar Sadat, the Egyptian president who "betrayed Palestine", he added that the Nobel Prize is rarely awarded to those who served their country.
Despite many conflicting views, I believe that the decision to award the most prestigious award in the world to Shirin Ebadi was correct one. After analyzing her biography and works, it's safe to say that not everyone would dare to confront the opinion of the top authorities of the country and, at the same time to collect so strong support on the part of other countries. Definitely, such a person must possess not only great intellectual abilities, but also to be a humanist, because this brave woman has made every effort not for her own benefits, fame and money, but in order to defend the interests of the most unprotected sectors of society of Iran.
This was the impetus for the further promotion of the Iranian people in that direction, thanks to which people are deepening into the issue now. Every human has learned that it is possible to defend your rights and at the same time get the support of like-minded. After all, if a problem is not discussed it will always remain a problem.
Therefore, the woman, who confronted the system, definitely deserves such reward as the Nobel Prize and nobody has the right to take it from her.
Works Cited
Brown, Janet. Shirin Ebadi, Champion for Human Rights in Iran. New York: Chelsea House, 2007. Print.
Moaveni, Azadeh. Iran Awakening: A Memoir of Revolution and Hope. New York: Random House, 2006. Print.
"Shirin Ebadi - Biographical." Nobelprise.org. Nobel Media AB 2014. Web. 27 Nov. 2014. <http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/2003/ebadi-bio.html>.
"Shirin Ebadi - Facts." Nobelprize.org. Nobel Media AB 2014. Web. 27 Nov. 2014. <http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/2003/ebadi-facts.html>.
