Shirin Ebadi Fast Facts

Here is a look at the life of Shirin Ebadi, the first Muslim woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize.

Personal

Birth date: June 21, 1947

Birth place: Hamadan, Iran

Father: Muhammad Ali Ebadi, law professor and lawyer

Mother: Minu Yamini

Marriage: Javad Tavassolian (1975-divorce date unknown)

Children: Nargess (female); Negar (female)

Education: University of Tehran, law degree, 1969; University of Tehran, doctorate, 1971

Religion: Islam

Other Facts

Is the first Iranian to win the Nobel Peace Prize.

Is a campaigner for women’s and children’s rights and has published numerous books on the subject.

Worked to try to change child custody laws in Iran after 9-year-old Arian Golshani was beaten to death by her father and stepmother. Golshani’s mother was not allowed to have custody of her due to Iranian laws that favor men over women.

Timeline

March 1969 – Becomes the first female judge in Iran.

1975-1979 – Serves as president of the city court of Tehran.

1979 – Is forced to step down as a judge after the Islamic Revolution.

1999 – Campaigns to reveal the identities of attackers who killed several students at Tehran University.

2000 – Jailed for more than three weeks and suspended from practicing law for five years after she and another attorney are accused of releasing a video that supposedly slandered members of the government.

2001 – Wins the Rafto Prize for her work promoting democracy and fighting for human rights in Iran.

2003 – Wins the Nobel Peace Prize.

2006 – Her memoir “Iran Awakening: One Woman’s Journey to Reclaim Her Life and Country” is published. Helps establish the Nobel Women’s Initiative with other female peace prize recipients.

2007 – Represents imprisoned Iranian-American scholar Haleh Esfandiari, who is released after being arrested on charges of threatening national security.

2008 – Ebadi’s book “Refugee Rights in Iran” is published.

April 2008 – After Ebadi receives death threats, Iranian Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad orders a police investigation.

December 2008 – Iranian security forces raid Ebadi’s office in Tehran. She tells CNN the authorities did not give her a reason for closing down her office.

June 2009 – Begins life in exile in the United Kingdom.

November 2009 – The Iranian government confiscates Ebadi’s Nobel medal and freezes her bank accounts.

2011 – Her book “The Golden Cage: Three Brothers, Three Choices, One Destiny” is published.

August 2015 – Ebadi and other high-profile Iranians release a video encouraging Americans to support the nuclear deal with Iran.

March 2016 – Her memoir “Until We Are Free: My Fight for Human Rights in Iran” is published.

February-March 2018 – Visits Rohingya refugee camps in Bangladesh, with Nobel Peace laureates Tawakkol Karman of Yemen and Mairead Maguire of Northern Ireland. The Nobel Women’s Initiative fact-finding delegation calls for an end to genocide in Myanmar.