Shirin Ebadi was born in Hamadan, Iran in 1947. Her father, Mohammad Ali Ebadi, authored several books and was one of the first lecturers in commercial law in Iran. She credits her father with inspiring and informing her social justice activism.
Ebadi followed in her father’s footsteps and became lawyer, then broke the gender barrier to become the first female judge in Iran. She sat on the bench until 1979, the year of the Islamic Revolution, when she and other female justices were dismissed of their duties and given clerical duties. Still, she persisted.
In 1994, she co-founded the Society for Protecting the Rights of the Child. In 2002, Ebadi co-founded the Defenders of Human Rights Centre (DHRC) with other Iranian lawyers to provide legal assistance to those working toward promoting democracy. Her work on landmark cases was noticed internationally.
In 2003, Dr. Shirin Ebadi became the first Iranian woman and Muslim to win the Nobel Peace Prize. When she returned to Tehran from Norway, she was greeted at the airport by crowds cheering her name. As a Nobel Laureate, she co-founded the Nobel Women’s Initiative in 2006 and used some of her prize money to support the work of the organization she helped co-found, the Defenders of Human Rights Centre. Two years later, while she was traveling abroad, the Iranian government raided her office and confiscated her professional archives and personal belongings including her Nobel certificate and medal. Her husband and sister were arrested and imprisoned. In 2016, Ebadi published her memoir, Until We Are Free, about her fight for human rights in Iran. Her memoir became a documentary which was screened at Stanford University in December 2022.
Criminal Laws, Tehran 1972. Published by Bank Melli of Iran (Professor Rahnama; Professor Abdolhoseyn Aliabadi).
The Rights of the Child; A study in the legal aspects of children’s rights in Iran, 1987. Translated into English by Mohammad Zamiran. Published by UNICEF, 1993.
Medical Laws; Tehran, 1988. Published by Zavar.
Young Workers, Tehran, 1989. Published by Roshangaran.
Copyright Laws, Tehran, 1989. Published by Roshangaran.
Architectural Laws, Tehran, 1991. Published by Roshangaran.
The Rights of Refugees, Tehran, 1993. Published by Ganj-e Danesh.
History and Documentation of Human Rights in Iran, Tehran, 1993. Published by Roshangaran.
Tradition and Modernity, Tehran 1995. Written by Mohammad Zamiran, Shirin Ebadi. Published by Ganj-e Danesh.
Children’s Comparative Law, Tehran, 1997. Published by Kanoun (This book was translated into English by Mr Hamid Marashi, and published by UNICEF in Tehran in 1998).
The Rights of Women, Tehran, 2002. Published by Ganj-e Danesh.
* Details provided are taken from the original publications.
“The Child and Family Law”; A series of articles appearing in the Encyclopedia Iranica. Published by Columbia University.
“The Rights of Parents”; Article published in the journal Studies in the Social Impacts of Biotechnology. Published by CNRS, France
“Women and Legal Forms of Violence in Iran”; Article published in the Bonyad Iran journal in Paris on the subject of violence.
Over 70 articles on various aspects of human rights which have appeared in various publications in Iran. Some have been translated into English. They were presented at CRC [Convention on the Rights of the Child], a seminar organized by UNICEF in 1997.
Articles published in various weeklies, including Fekr-e Now New Ideas, on various aspects of laws relating to women.
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