Word: ebadi
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...public official would think twice today about poking fun at Ebadi, whose struggle for human rights in Iran has earned her the 2003 Nobel Peace Prize. In naming Ebadi last week, Norway's Nobel Committee handed a platform to a formidable Iranian voice of conscience, breathed life into the country's dying reform movement and put the Islamic regime on notice. Ebadi has never believed that Islam and reform are doomed to be at odds. "There is absolutely nothing incompatible or contradictory about Islam, democracy and political freedom," she told TIME in Paris, where she learned of the award. "There...
Notwithstanding such olive branches, Ebadi's unflinching advocacy has earned her the wrath of hard-liners, including death threats from vigilantes. Ebadi, 56, is a longtime defender of the rights of children and women, who in recent years has taken up the cause of persecuted activists. She was one of the 134 signatories of the 1994 Declaration of Iranian Writers, an early turning point in the pro-democracy struggle. "Her character is that of a fighter," says Shahla Lahiji, a prominent Iranian publisher and close friend for 20 years. Ebadi's mother Mino, 79, has long been proud...
...Ebadi is the first Iranian and first Muslim woman to be awarded the Peace Prize. The news was greeted with jeers, cheers and some conspicuous silence in Iran. After ignoring the story all day, Iran's state television made the prize the final item on its evening news program, following the sports report and a story about an emergency aircraft landing in New Zealand. Mohsen Kadivar, a prominent dissident cleric, once imprisoned for his pro-democracy statements, told TIME that the prize was "an honor for Iran, for Iranian women and for reformists." But conservatives mocked the award as another...
...Ebadi's career began after she attended Tehran University law school, when she became one of Iran's first female judges. She supported the 1979 Iranian revolution, but she was removed from her post by the new government. She eventually established a nongovernmental organization for child welfare and authored a seminal book on children's rights. Ebadi found herself taking on high-profile political cases that other lawyers were too timid to handle. In 2000 she helped document allegations that conservative clerics and politicians were behind vigilante attacks on reformers. The revelations embarrassed prosecutors, and Ebadi was jailed...
Though her friends consider her still in danger from vigilante death squads, Ebadi continues to defend those facing imprisonment for their pro-democracy activities. But Iran's reform movement has been brutally suppressed in recent years, and it seems doubtful that the regime will soon change its ways. If it fails to do so, it will hear more from Ebadi, whose reputation in the outside world has been enhanced by last week's storied award. --With reporting by Bruce Crumley/Paris