Shirin Ebadi

In 1975, she married Javsd Tavassolian, an electrical engineer. The couple has two daughters, Nargess and Negar.

Shirin Ebadi was born on June 21, 1947, in Hamedan, in northwestern Iran, into an educated Muslim family. Her father, Mohammad Ali Ebadi, was as a professor of commercial law. She had a sister, Noushin, and the family moved to Tehran when Ebadi was a year old.

Ebadi received her early education from Firuzkuhi primary school, and later attended Anoshiravn Dadgar and Reza Shah Kabir secondary schools. In 1965, she was enrolled at the Faculty of Law in the University of Tehran.

Upon completing her graduation, she qualified her entrance exam to become a judge and in March 1969, Ebadi became one of the first women judges in Iran. Subsequently, she also earned her doctorate in private law from the Tehran University in 1971.

From 1975 to 1979, she served as the first woman president of the Tehran city court but following the 1979 revolution and the establishment of an Islamic republic, Ebadi was demoted to a clerical post at the court.

Along with other female judges, Ebadi raised her voice against this act, forcing the authorities to give them higher roles at the Department of Justice but women were still not allowed to serve as judges. Thus, Ebadi took an early retirement and decided to practice law but was denied a lawyer’s license for a long time until 1992.

While waiting for the approval of her attorney's license, she started teaching a human rights training courses at the University of Tehran. In addition to it, she also wrote books and published some articles in Iranian journals during the time.

In 1992, upon finally obtaining a license, she began practicing law and became an advocate for civil rights. Thereafter, she took up many controversial political and social cases such as representing the mother of Arin Golshani, a girl who was tortured and killed under her father's custody. Subsequently, Ebadi also represented the families of serial murder victims as well as the mother of a murdered photojournalist.

In 1999, she presented evidence against the government officials in the case of murders of students at the Tehran University, for which Ebadi faced imprisonment for three weeks. She has also defended various other cases dealing with child abuse and prohibitions of periodicals.

In 1975, Ebadi became the president of Bench 24 of Tehran's City Court, the first woman in the history of the Iran to achieve this distinction. Later, upon obtaining her private attorney’s license, she started taking up human rights cases, fighting against the system for the deprived, especially women and children.

As a human rights activist, Ebadi has served as a devoted campaigner for peaceful solutions to social problems and strengthening the legal status of children and women. She has played a major role in empowering woman as well as protecting children rights across the globe.