Shirin Ebadi (Persian: شيرين عبادى, romanized: Širin Ebādi; born 21 June 1947) is an Iranian Nobel laureate, lawyer, writer, teacher and a former judge and founder of the Defenders of Human Rights Center in Iran.

In 2003, Ebadi was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her pioneering efforts for democracy and women's, children's, and refugee rights.

Her father, Mohammad Ali Ebadi, was the city's chief notary public and a professor of commercial law.

Before earning a law degree from the University of Tehran Ebadi attended Anoshiravn Dadgar and Reza Shah Kabir schools.

Among her clients were the family of Dariush Forouhar, a dissident intellectual and politician who was found stabbed to death – along with his wife, Parvaneh Eskandari – in their home.

Suspicion fell on extremist hard-liners determined to stop the more liberal climate fostered by President Khatami, who championed freedom of speech.

Ebadi and another lawyer, Rohami were sentenced to five years in jail and suspension of their law licenses for sending Ebrahimi's videotaped deposition to President Khatami and the head of the Islamic judiciary.

[17] In her book Iran Awakening, Ebadi explains her political/religious views on Islam, democracy and gender equality: In the last 23 years, from the day I was stripped of my judgeship to the years of doing battle in the revolutionary courts of Tehran, I had repeated one refrain: an interpretation of Islam that is in harmony with equality and democracy is an authentic expression of faith.

[18]At the same time, Ebadi expresses a nationalist love of Iran and has criticized the policies and actions of Western countries.

She opposed the pro-Western Shah, initially supported the Islamic Revolution, and remembers the CIA's 1953 overthrow of prime minister Mohammad Mosaddeq with rage.

[22]However, in a 2012 interview, Ebadi stated: The [Iranian] people want to stop enrichment, but the government doesn't listen.

Since the victory of Hassan Rouhani in the 2013 Iranian presidential election, Shirin Ebadi has expressed her worry about the growing human rights violations in her homeland.

Ebadi, in her Dec. 2013 speech at Human Rights Day seminar at Leiden University angrily said: "I will shut up, but the problems of Iran will not be solved".

Pope John Paul II had been predicted to win the Peace Prize amid speculation that he was nearing death.

[30] She presented a book entitled Democracy, human rights, and Islam in modern Iran: Psychological, social and cultural perspectives to the Nobel Committee.

The volume documents the historical and cultural basis of democracy and human rights from Cyrus and Darius, 2,500 years ago to Mohammad Mossadeq, the prime minister of modern Iran who nationalized the oil industry.

In her acceptance speech, Ebadi criticized repression in Iran and insisted that Islam was compatible with democracy, human rights and freedom of opinion.

The response to the Award in Iran was mixed—enthusiastic supporters greeted her at the airport upon her return, the conservative media underplayed it, and then-Iranian President Mohammad Khatami criticized it as political.

[citation needed] In 2009, Norway's Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Støre, published a statement reporting that Ebadi's Nobel Peace Prize had been confiscated by Iranian authorities and that "This [was] the first time a Nobel Peace Prize ha[d] been confiscated by national authorities.

[40] In August 2008, the IRNA news agency published an article attacking Ebadi's links to the Baháʼí Faith and accused her of seeking support from the West.

However Shirin Ebadi has denied it, saying, "I am proud to say that my family and I are Shiites,"[42] Her daughter believes "the government wanted to scare my mother with this scenario."

"[46] Ebadi said while in London in late November 2009 that her Nobel Peace Prize medal and diploma had been taken from their bank box alongside her Légion d'honneur and a ring she had received from Germany's association of journalists.

[47][50][51] Norwegian Minister of Foreign Affairs Jonas Gahr Støre expressed his "shock and disbelief" at the incident.

[47] The Iranian foreign ministry subsequently denied the confiscation, and also criticized Norway for interfering in Iran's affairs.