Shirin Ebadi: The fight for Human Rights in the Middle East
The fight for human rights has been a lengthy struggle around the world. Many people in the Islamic state of Iran, particularly women and children, have suffered through a life long battle of the government limiting their natural rights, such as freedom and equality, due to religious traditions colliding with the state. Shirin Ebadi, an Iranian lawyer and activist who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2003, is a courageous, kind-hearted woman who was determined to help the people of her country gain their freedoms. Although Shirin Ebadi is widely known for her fight for the justice of women and children, a few critics have considered Ebadi’s efforts as small or limited in shaping reform; however, Ebadi fought her hardest for the freedom her people deserved, and helped her self and others achieve simple goals they thought they could never reach.
The plight of women in Iran has not always been so dire. Between the years from 1925 to 1979, Iranian women benefited greatly from the government’s policies. They had education available, the right to vote, and the right to run in the parliament. However following the Iranian revolution in 1979, when under the new regime of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, Iran’s new government gave priority to Islamic tradition, favoring male dominance. Women were suddenly stripped of their rights and benefits, and treated as unequals compared to men. Laura Sector from the New York Times writes in her book review of A Memoir of Revolution and Hope, by Shirin Ebadi, “One day in 1980, the country’s new Islamic penal code- adopted overnight and without discussion-appeared in the newspaper. A woman’s life was to be worth half a man’s in the eyes of the law. Criminal penalties and relations between the sexes were to be set back 1400 years…” (Sector, A Dissenting Voice). Shirin Ebadi was of course one of the women who struggled with this loss of rights, considering she was a judge, and women were no longer allowed to have government positions.
The plight of women in Iran has not always been so dire. Between the years from 1925 to 1979, Iranian women benefited greatly from the government’s policies. They had education available, the right to vote, and the right to run in the parliament. However following the Iranian revolution in 1979, when under the new regime of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, Iran’s new government gave priority to Islamic tradition, favoring male dominance. Women were suddenly stripped of their rights and benefits, and treated as unequals compared to men. Laura Sector from the New York Times writes in her book review of A Memoir of Revolution and Hope, by Shirin Ebadi, “One day in 1980, the country’s new Islamic penal code- adopted overnight and without discussion-appeared in the newspaper. A woman’s life was to be worth half a man’s in the eyes of the law. Criminal penalties and relations between the sexes were to be set back 1400 years…” (Sector, A Dissenting Voice). Shirin Ebadi was of course one of the women who struggled with this loss of rights, considering she was a judge, and women were no longer allowed to have government positions.