Shirin Ebadi; who is she?

Tuesday, October 14, 2003
Well I guess you have heard of her enough for sure. But let me play my own part, telling you what I know of her… not much though!
The first time I ever heard of her was in 1998… when tow of her clients stabbed & killed savagely in some sort of a series of political clean-up murders…. We knew about them & for sometime every body that was actively or even passively involve in political reformist party like nehzat azadi, has the fear of being murdered! She started to speak up for her late clients (Daruish & Parvaneh Foruhar).
She is 56 right now. & she has been the first woman judge before revolution. But she lost the title after 1979 due to Shari law! So she began her career as a lecturer in university, at the same time she was a lawyer….
What she is more concerned about is children’s & women’s rights! Along with other lawyers she established an NGO the Centre for the Defense of Human Rights. & it’s been said she is going to donate the prize award to it!
As far as I can remember she had spent some time in solitary confinement for she had been involved in putting a videotape in spotlight which contained statements of a spy in intelligence ministry I guess!
She is banned from attending the court for 5 years…. But none of these actually stopped her. Over here in Iran the radio & the TV keep silence about the prize just mentioning it in cultural news. No wonder they are controlled by some hardliners! But everybody is talking about it….
I have always been very proud of being born as Iranian, yet now I feel sow I can be more confident in announcing my nationality!
Some people stated that pope was more eligible for the prize. I see their point of view & I know he is a great man. Yet I don’t like to think of the selection as a humiliating act. I mean why it is looked like an Iranian Moslem woman has defeated pope? I hope he will understand what the prize means to a country like mine….
You can read the noble announcement in the address below:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/media/video/39434000/rm/_39434586_nobel10_announcement_vi.ram