Shirin Ebadi Biography Quotes 18 Report mistakes

Early Life and Education
Shirin Ebadi was born in 1947 in Hamadan, Iran, and grew up in a family that valued scholarship and public service. Her father, a noted legal scholar and lecturer in commercial law at the University of Tehran, introduced her early to the language and logic of the law. When the family relocated to Tehran, she pursued formal study at the University of Tehran and took her law degree with distinction. She continued to doctoral studies in law and prepared herself for what was then an uncommon path for Iranian women.

Judicial Career and the 1979 Revolution
In 1969 Ebadi entered the judiciary, becoming one of the country's first women judges. She advanced rapidly and, by the mid-1970s, served as a presiding judge in a Tehran court, a post that made her a visible symbol of professional women in public life. The 1979 Islamic Revolution transformed the legal system and redefined women's roles in it. After new authorities declared that women could not serve as judges, she was stripped of her judgeship and reassigned to clerical work. Refusing to accept a position she regarded as a demotion, she left the court, petitioned persistently to practice law, and endured years of administrative obstruction before finally receiving her attorney's license in the early 1990s.

Human Rights Lawyering and High-Profile Cases
As an attorney, Ebadi used the courtroom and the press to press for legal reform, focusing on the rights of women, children, journalists, and political dissidents. She took on cases that tested the boundaries of due process and state accountability. Among the most notable were her representation of the family of Zahra Kazemi, the Iranian-Canadian photojournalist who died in custody in 2003, and her work on behalf of the families of Dariush Forouhar and Parvaneh Eskandari-Forouhar, opposition figures murdered in the 1998 chain killings. She also represented the family of Ezzat Ebrahim-Nejad, a student killed during the 1999 Tehran University dormitory attack, bringing international attention to the case.

Her professional circle included other prominent human rights lawyers, such as Mohammad Ali Dadkhah and Abdolfattah Soltani, with whom she co-founded the Defenders of Human Rights Center in Tehran in 2001. Narges Mohammadi later became a leading figure in the center's work. Together they offered legal aid to prisoners of conscience, documented abuses, and campaigned for changes in family law, press freedoms, and fair trial standards. Ebadi's advocacy also extended to religious minorities, and she publicly defended the basic rights of members of persecuted communities.

Nobel Peace Prize and International Advocacy
In 2003 the Norwegian Nobel Committee awarded Ebadi the Nobel Peace Prize for her efforts to promote democracy and human rights, especially the rights of women and children. She was the first Iranian and the first Muslim woman to receive the award. In her Nobel lecture in Oslo, she argued that human rights are universal and compatible with faith, and she urged reformers and religious leaders alike to reject interpretations that curtail fundamental freedoms.

The prize amplified her voice. Ebadi used the platform to support imprisoned journalists, student activists, and reformist thinkers, including public advocacy on behalf of figures such as Akbar Ganji. She also helped found the Nobel Women's Initiative in 2006, joining fellow laureates Jody Williams, Wangari Maathai, Rigoberta Menchu Tum, Mairead Maguire, and Betty Williams to coordinate global campaigns against violence and for women's leadership in peacebuilding.

Pressure, Harassment, and Exile
As her prominence grew, so did official pressure. The Defenders of Human Rights Center was shut down by authorities, her offices were raided, and colleagues including Soltani and Dadkhah faced arrest and prosecution. The authorities targeted her family members with intimidation and arrests, seized files, and sought to silence her through legal and financial harassment. During the unrest following the 2009 presidential election, Ebadi was abroad for a lecture tour; amid the sweeping crackdown, she remained in exile for her safety and continued her work from outside Iran.

Even from abroad, she coordinated legal defense efforts, spoke before parliaments and international organizations, and worked with diaspora networks and global NGOs to keep attention on prisoners of conscience, the death penalty, and systemic discrimination. She maintained close professional and personal ties with colleagues still inside Iran and those forced into exile, insisting that international pressure and local courage had to reinforce each other.

Writings and Public Thought
Ebadi wrote widely for Persian and international audiences, aiming to make complex legal concepts accessible and to connect law with everyday justice. Her publications explained children's rights, the interplay of religion and law, and the practical steps necessary to reform family and criminal codes. In her memoir, written with journalist Azadeh Moaveni, she traced her passage from courtroom judge to human rights advocate and exile, casting it as both a personal journey and a reflection of modern Iran's legal and political struggles. She later explored the fates of ordinary families caught in history's crosscurrents, arguing that durable peace requires lawful states and engaged citizens, not just elections.

Personal Life and Values
Ebadi has described how her husband and two daughters bore the brunt of official pressure as her work became more visible. Her sister was also targeted during periods of heightened tension. Despite that pressure, she framed her activism as a defense of family life: the right of parents to raise children free from fear, of daughters to inherit equal opportunity, and of sons to inherit a society governed by law. She grounded her arguments in Iranian legal traditions, Islamic jurisprudence, and international covenants, insisting that reform must be both principled and practical.

Legacy and Continuing Influence
Shirin Ebadi's career traces a consistent arc: from pioneering woman judge to embattled lawyer, from domestic reformer to global advocate. The people around her have shaped that arc: clients whose courage made law tangible; colleagues like Mohammad Ali Dadkhah, Abdolfattah Soltani, and Narges Mohammadi who stood beside her at great personal cost; and fellow Nobel laureates who helped carry Iranian civil society's message onto the world stage. Her insistence that human rights are neither Western imports nor negotiable privileges has influenced jurists, students, and activists far beyond Iran.

Despite bans, closures, and exile, Ebadi's Defenders of Human Rights Center endures as an idea and a network, training younger lawyers to document abuses and argue cases. Her example continues to inform debates about the role of women in law, the boundaries of state power, and the obligations of the international community when domestic remedies fail. Through persistent legal work, public advocacy, and alliances with brave peers, she has left a lasting imprint on the vocabulary and practice of rights in Iran and across the region.

Our collection contains 18 quotes who is written by Shirin, under the main topics: Military & Soldier - Equality - Peace - Reason & Logic - Human Rights.