Shirin Ebadi Quotations

Shirin Ebadi is an Iranian lawyer and human rights activist. On December 10, 2003, Ebadi was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, becoming the first Iranian and the first Muslim woman to receive the prize.

Sourced

"Any person who pursues human rights in Iran must live with fear from birth to death, but I have learned to overcome my fear."
- From 1999 interview.
- Noted in the October 2003 BBC News profile of Ebadi. (retrieved Oct. 15, 2008)

"In my memoir, I wanted to introduce American women to Iranian women and our lives. I'm not from the highest echelons of society, nor the lowest. I'm a women who is a lawyer, who is a professor at a university, who won the Nobel Peace Prize. At the same time, I cook. And even when I'm about to go to prison, one of the first things I do is to make enough food and put it in the fridge for my family."
- From 2006 interview with Ebadi by New America Media editor Brian Shott (translator, Banafsheh Keynoush) about her newly released book, Iran Awakening: A Memoir of Revolution and Hope.
- New America Media, 2006. (retrieved Oct. 15, 2008)

"I compare my situation to a person on board a ship. When there is a shipwreck the passenger then falls in the ocean and has no choice but to keep swimming. What happened in our society was that the laws overturned every right that women had. I had no choice. I could not get tired, I could not lose hope. I cannot afford to do that."
- From 2006 interview with Ebadi by Harry Kreisler (translator, Banafsheh Keynoush) about her newly released book, Iran Awakening: A Memoir of Revolution and Hope.
- From May 10 2006 interview with Ebadi at Institute of International Studies, University of California, Berkeley. (retrieved Oct. 15, 2008)