Discrimination in Iran (Worksheet)

Nobel Peace Prize winner Shirin Ebadi spoke at Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs on May 1, 2006 about her book Iran Awakening: A Memoir of Revolution and Hope.The full transcript can be found here.

The two excerpts found herecan help students get a more nuanced understanding of human rights and discrimination in Iran, specifically around 2006. The short texts focus on women's rights and religious rights.

The speaker, Shirin Ebadi was one of Iran's first female judges from 1975-1979, but was forced to resign after the 1979 revolution. She has been imprisoned on numerous occasions because of her human rights work. In 2003 she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in recognition of her sustained fight for human rights and democracy, the first Muslim woman and the first Iranian to receive this award. For an excerpt from her more recent memoir, Until We Are Free: My Fight for Human Rights in Iran, please click here.

Photo: Jamkaran mosque. CREDIT: Muhammad Mahdi Karim via Wikimedia