The irony is that ‘Peace’, these days comes at a very heavy price and with means which are almost always bordering on violence. In such times, Shirin Ebadi has clawed her way into the heart of the conflict to carve out a pasture of dignified living.

Iranian lawyer Shirin Ebadi, a human rights and democracy activist became the first Iranian Muslim Women and only the eleventh woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize. Ebadi was handed the $1.4 million prize and gold medal by the head of the Norwegian Nobel Committee at a glittering ceremony at Oslo City Hall on December 10. The Nobel Peace Prize 2003, comes as a recognition for Ms. Ebadi’s relentless crusade for human rights, especially the struggle for the rights of women and children.

A graduate of Tehran University, Shirin Ebadi was the first female judge in her country, serving as president of the Tehran city court, from 1975. With the advent of the Islamic republic in 1979, however, she was forced to resign when it was decided that women were not suitable for such posts. She now works as a lawyer and also teaches at the University of Tehran.

Shirin Ebadi has consistently used the law to fight for women, children, and victims of government repression. She has led efforts to amend the laws unfavourable to women, to provide more protection for street children, and to free those detained for expressing their opposition to the government. She has continued her advocacy despite detention, suspension from legal practice, and repeated threats to her security.

The world has now woken up to Shirin Ebadi, a feisty woman from Iran. The Noble Peace Prize to Ebadi has come at a time, when the whole world is trying to find ways to cope with dissidence in various forms. The irony is that ‘Peace’, these days comes at a very heavy price and with means which are almost always bordering on violence. In such times, Shirin Ebadi has clawed her way into the heart of the conflict to carve out a pasture of dignified living.

Although it is difficult not to look at Shirin Ebadi in one of the various identities, which have come to be a part of her, yet it is unforgivable to shred her into various pieces of different personas. She is Iranian by birth, a Muslim by faith, a lawyer by profession, a crusader of new Islam for some and a perpetual thorn in the flesh for some others. Yet, at the core of all of her efforts she appears to be an individual who would want nothing more or less than her right to choose her own destiny. In her ‘choice’, lies her destiny and of her people.

As an activist and a researcher, she is known for promoting peaceful, democratic solutions to serious problems in society. She actively participates in public debate and is admired by the general public in her country for her legal defence of victims of the authoritarian attack on freedom of speech and political freedom.

Her acceptance speech at the Noble Prize award ceremony underlies the essence of her struggle for democracy and human rights. At the conclusion of her speech she says, “If the 21st century wishes to free itself from the cycle of violence, acts of terror and war, and avoid repetition of the experience of the 20th century - that most disaster-ridden century of humankind, there is no other way except by understanding and putting into practice every human right for all mankind, irrespective of race, gender, faith, nationality or social status.”

For her, vital human rights such as democracy, equality before the law, religious freedom and freedom of speech are tools, which can rid humanity from the curse of deprivation and hunger. In the face of constant oppression and violation of human rights not just in Iran, but around the world, humanity is going through a serious crisis. Shirin Ebadi has shown a way, a path fraught with mortal danger. Yet, it is the only one for those who would care for their self-respects and of others. She warns us, the common man, leaders, opinion-makers, despots and idlers, “If human rights fail to be manifested in codified laws or put into effect by states, then, as rendered in the preamble of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, human beings will be left with no choice other than staging a “rebellion against tyranny and oppression”. A human being divested of all dignity, a human being deprived of human rights, a human being gripped by starvation, a human being beaten by famine, war and illness, a humiliated human being and a plundered human being is not in any position or state to recover the rights he or she has lost.”

We better be warned!

People in her country want Shirin to run for presidency in the aftermath of her glorious reception at the Tehran airport when her name was declared for the Noble Peace Prize. Whether she considers a political career, as the only solution to rid her people of their day-to-day problems, is only a matter of speculation for idle minds, since means do not matter as long as they are rooted in the idea of peace.