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Iran Awakening

4.09 of 5 stars 4.09 · rating details · 1,358 ratings · 183 reviews

The moving, inspiring memoir of one of the great women of our times, Shirin Ebadi, winner of the 2003 Nobel Peace Prize and advocate for the oppressed, whose spirit has remained strong in the face of political persecution and despite the challenges she has faced raising a family while pursuing her work.

Best known in this country as the lawyer working tirelessly on behalf...more

Hardcover, 232 pages

Published May 2nd 2006 by Random House (first published January 1st 2006)

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The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan

New York Times 100 Notable Books of 2006

17th out of 200 books — 24 voters

Foreign Policy's Top 100 Public Intellectuals (2008)

58th out of 132 books — 16 voters

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Apr 14, 2008 Don rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Dorise, Dad, Amy, Melissa, Kristina, Caitlin, Roni, Jason

Shelves: bookclub, favorites, islam, history, religion, non-fiction, to-read-again

This wonderful little book tells the story of an educated woman of Iran who participated in the Islamic Revolution and rose her voice to criticize it in terms of gender equality and other democratic issues, while remaining utterly faithful to her religion and to her country. She won the noble prize, as she see's it for her "one refrain: an interpretation of Islam that is in harmony with equality and democracy is an authentic expression of faith" (p. 204).

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Dec 18, 2011 Asma rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites

نادرة هي تلك الكتب التي تُخاطبك تمامًا؛ او لنقل تسدّ ثغرة في داخلك ..
و رغم ان الكتاب ما هو إلا سيرة ذاتية إلا أنه من الطابع المختلف .. ليست حكاية تروى او قالب حياة روتينيّ

شيرين تتحدث بصفتها مواطنة إيرانية قبل أن تكون رمز مناضل .. كرّست حياتها من أجل الأرض ودفاعًا عن وطن لايهتمّ ؛
كانت الحياة بين يديها؛ الى أن أضحى كل شيء الى زوال ..
و ذلك إبان الثورة الإسلامية حيث أصبحت إيران هادمة لسلام الفرد الداخلي في سبيل تحقيق شعارات وفروض واجبة مستخدمة سلطة الدين؛
منعت من مزاولة الحياة الطبيعية كفرد إيران...more

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Nov 14, 2008 Sandra D rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: memoir, middle-east, women

A quick, absorbing read. It's more of a personal than a political memoir, though it does cover the major events in Iran's history from the mid-20th century to the present in order to illustrate the differences in ordinary Iranians' lives under a secular government, then under the restored monarchy, and finally under a fundamentalist Islamic government which instituted sharia law, complete with Taliban-style behavior police.

Ebadi became a judge at age 23 and initially supported the revolution tha...more

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Jan 01, 2009 June rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shirin Ebadi recently won the Nobel Peace Prize for her humanitarian work for the poor and oppressed society in Iran. This memoir chronicles her journeys from being a young wife & mother, becoming a judge in her twenties (!!), to her passionate work that eventually led to her receiving one of the world's highest honours.

While a singularly remarkable woman of courage, Ebadi was also rather possessive of her platonic relationships, in my opinion. She recounts disowning her friends because she...more

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Apr 25, 2013 Bjorn rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shirin Ebadi's autobiography is an excellent read, not only for those who want to know something of the background of the mess currently developing in Iran, and why outside interference might be a Very Bad Idea, but also what it's like to live there, both as a free-thinker, as a woman, and as a lawyer - yes, the latter is very relevant - capped, bizarrely, with her having to sue the US Finance Dept. to be allowed to publish this very book in the US, since the embargo against Iran included litera...more Shirin Ebadi's autobiography is an excellent read, not only for those who want to know something of the background of the mess currently developing in Iran, and why outside interference might be a Very Bad Idea, but also what it's like to live there, both as a free-thinker, as a woman, and as a lawyer - yes, the latter is very relevant - capped, bizarrely, with her having to sue the US Finance Dept. to be allowed to publish this very book in the US, since the embargo against Iran included literature.

Shirin Ebadi was the first woman to work as a judge in Iran in the 70s. The book follows her through her and the Iranian people's growing dissatisfaction with the shah, culminating in the 1979 revolution which she supported (and still supports)... and what happened when Khomeini's hardliners then took over and created a brand-new (or very old) kind of state: the Islamic Republic of Iran, where suddenly not only Ebadi found herself out of a job, but where the entire legal system she had spent her entire adult life learning was, overnight, replaced by a more-or-less arbitrary system of sharia laws where a woman is worth half a man and those who oppose the government oppose God himself and are treated accordingly. And as if that weren't enough, there was the war with Iraq on top of all of it.

And in this, she continued to work as a lawyer, specifically helping those who found themselves either screwed over by the system (rape victims and their families, mothers who couldn't get custody of their children) and those in more or less direct opposition to it. For all the horrific (or at times darkly comic) examples she cites, it's very hard not to be impressed by her ability to keep ducking and weaving despite being harrassed, jailed and finding her own name on official death lists. With no strict law to argue, she often finds herself arguing theology with judges - and even if they occasionally simply have her thrown out of court when they run out of arguments, she makes a difference. Not always, but simply getting the word out, simply keeping the debate alive in a country that's on its second generation as a theocracy, can mean the difference between life and death.

Over the last 23 years, from the day I was deposed as a judge to the trials in the revolutionary courts of Tehran, I've repeated my mantra: an interpretation of Islam which is compatible with equality and democracy is a true expression of faith. It's not religion which enslaves women, unlike what those say who want to keep women enslaved. That conviction, and the one that change must come peacefully from within, has always been the foundation of my work.

Iran Awakening isn't the dissident call to arms one might suspect; she got the Nobel peace prize, after all. It's a story of a woman who loves her country even though she (strongly, but politely) disagrees with her government, keeps her faith even when it's hijacked by fundamentalists, and works for justice and reform within a system that seems specifically designed to oppose both justice and reform, since overthrowing it completely simply isn't an option. Twitter is a fine tool; but if you want some more nuanced background, this makes a fine starting point.(less)

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Nov 29, 2012 Babak Fakhamzadeh rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: memoires, iran

Shirin Ebadi is the Iranian human rights lawyer who won the Nobel peace prize in 2003. This book is a collection of stories about her and her cases. It was written with Azadeh Moaveni, author of the book Lipstick Jihad.
Roughly, the book consists of two parts. The first reads more like an autobiography and is the more interesting. The second recounts tales of cases Ebadi took on as a lawyer as well as her own incarceration. Those stories are reasonably well known, if you follow this kind of stuf...more

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Nov 23, 2012 Winnie rated it 5 of 5 stars

About the author: Shirin Ebadi is one of the leading human rights activists in the world. She received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2003. She continues to work as a lawyer in Tehran while also lecturing widely around the world.

Amazon’s Book Description………The moving, inspiring memoir of one of the great women of our times, Shirin Ebadi, winner of the 2003 Nobel Peace Prize and advocate for the oppressed, whose spirit has remained strong in the face of political persecution and despite the challenges...more
About the author: Shirin Ebadi is one of the leading human rights activists in the world. She received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2003. She continues to work as a lawyer in Tehran while also lecturing widely around the world.

Amazon’s Book Description………The moving, inspiring memoir of one of the great women of our times, Shirin Ebadi, winner of the 2003 Nobel Peace Prize and advocate for the oppressed, whose spirit has remained strong in the face of political persecution and despite the challenges she has faced raising a family while pursuing her work.

Best known in this country as the lawyer working tirelessly on behalf of Canadian photojournalist, Zara Kazemi – raped, tortured and murdered in Iran – Dr. Ebadi offers us a vivid picture of the struggles of one woman against the system. The book movingly chronicles her childhood in a loving, untraditional family, her upbringing before the Revolution in 1979 that toppled the Shah, her marriage and her religious faith, as well as her life as a mother and lawyer battling an oppressive regime in the courts while bringing up her girls at home.

Outspoken, controversial, Shirin Ebadi is one of the most fascinating women today. She rose quickly to become the first female judge in the country; but when the religious authorities declared women unfit to serve as judges she was demoted to clerk in the courtroom she had once presided over. She eventually fought her way back as a human rights lawyer, defending women and children in politically charged cases that most lawyers were afraid to represent. She has been arrested and been the target of assassination, but through it all has spoken out with quiet bravery on behalf of the victims of injustice and discrimination and become a powerful voice for change, almost universally embraced as a hero.

Her memoir is a gripping story – a must-read for anyone interested in Zara Kazemi’s case, in the life of a remarkable woman, or in understanding the political and religious upheaval in our world.
(less)

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Apr 23, 2012 Ron rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: nonfiction

Written by Nobel Peace Prize winner Shirin Ebadi, this highly readable memoir reaches out specifically to American readers to help them understand the Islamic Republic of Iran as the two countries continue on what gives every appearance of a collision course. While Iran (Persia) can look back over a history of 3000 years, recent memory of political history dates from the 1953 CIA-assisted overthrow of its democratically elected prime minister, Mossadegh. The more than 50 years since then, as rem...more Written by Nobel Peace Prize winner Shirin Ebadi, this highly readable memoir reaches out specifically to American readers to help them understand the Islamic Republic of Iran as the two countries continue on what gives every appearance of a collision course. While Iran (Persia) can look back over a history of 3000 years, recent memory of political history dates from the 1953 CIA-assisted overthrow of its democratically elected prime minister, Mossadegh. The more than 50 years since then, as remembered by Ebadi, are a record of sometimes concealed, sometimes open animosity between our two nations, leading to the current dispute over Iran's development of a nuclear capability.

There are many books about Iran during these years written by outsiders, including Iranians from the West (such as the co-author of this book, Azadeh Moaveni, whose "Lipstick Jihad" tells of a return to Iran after growing up in California). This book provides an insider's view of the years since the fall of the Shah in 1979, and told from a woman's point of view, it describes the experience of losing not only her professional standing as a judge but of the struggle to preserve her identity, her integrity, and finally her life, as she is marked for elimination by a death squad eager to wipe out any perceived resistance to the hard-line government.

Unwilling to leave her country, while long-time friends and associates flee to the West, especially during the protracted and bloody war with Iraq in the 1980s, she remains behind, using her legal training to work in the defense of women and children, whose welfare is compromised by the extreme conservatism of the country's Islamic leaders. In working for reform, she also attempts to achieve justice for the student victims of the government's most repressive measures of intimidation. Meanwhile, she raises a family and never loses hope - even after an arrest puts her in prison for a while - that the democratic ideals that drove the revolution will some day be fulfilled. (less)

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Dec 29, 2011 ميّ أحمد rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: سير-ذاتية

عام 2009 من شهر نوفمبر كانت السابقة الأولى من نوعها حيث قامت جمهورية إيران بمصادرة جائزة نوبل للسلام من الناشطة الحقوقية شيرين عبادي ومارست ضغوطها المستمرة عليها بوصفها ناقدة للنظام الإيراني وذلك باعتقال شقيقتها وزوجها وبعضا من أقاربها
شيرين عبادي من السيدات القلائل التي إستطاعت أن تهز هيبة النظام بمواقفها المعارضة المتمثلة في المطالبة بحقوق المرأة الإيرانية والتي ضاعت مع انتصار الثورة الإسلامية
من هي شيرين عبادي
وكيف حصلت هذه الإيرانية المسلمة على جائزة نوبل !

عاشت شيرين طفولتها في طهران وتشبعت...more

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Apr 17, 2011 Ari rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: read-in-2011

To be clear: my rating is based purely on the enjoyment/entertainment factor. I think Shirin Ebadi has an amazing life story and I'm so glad she shared it. I did feel as though she was keeping a lot of things back, not going into much detail. I understand that her work is dangerous and maybe she feared repurcussions from the Iranian government but perhaps it could have been better glossed over? It's hard to explain. I admit she said some things that made me squirm but that's a good sign. I did h...more To be clear: my rating is based purely on the enjoyment/entertainment factor. I think Shirin Ebadi has an amazing life story and I'm so glad she shared it. I did feel as though she was keeping a lot of things back, not going into much detail. I understand that her work is dangerous and maybe she feared repurcussions from the Iranian government but perhaps it could have been better glossed over? It's hard to explain. I admit she said some things that made me squirm but that's a good sign. I did however take pause to something she said about America's previous ban on books from sanctioned countries. "It seemed incomprehensible to me that the U.S. government, the self-proclaimed protector of a free way of life, would seek to regulate what Americans oculd or could not read, a pratcie that is called censorship when enacted by authoritarian regimes." (pg. 211). I will acknolwedge that as an American I'm biased but I don't think that's censorship, especially since the U.S. is not censoring its CITIZENS. I am glad the ban was lifted though, I don't think sanctions should apply to books from the particular country.

I also think Ms. Ebadi is rather harsh, she refuses to contact her friend who left Iran. She looks down on them and to me that's both arrogant and frustrating. If someone is truly your friend, you will try and make the friendship work. And I don't think people are abandoning their country when conditions become untolerable. Ms. Ebadi says "When someone leaves Iran, it's as though that person has died to me. We're friends so long as we share the same world, for as long as the same hopes illuminate our lives, the same anxieties keep us awake at night. Years later, when my friends traveled back to Iran for short visits, I saw how right I had been. We still spoke Farsi, the same blood still ran through our veins, but they were living on a different planet than I was. You could find the words we exchanged in the same Persian dictionary, but it was as though we spoke diferent languages. In reality, I had lost my friends." (pg. 81). She stopped writing them letters because she considered them dead to her, to me that's a sign of a narrow-minded person and not a particularly good friend.

I did appreciate Ms. Ebadi's hoensty. She supported the Islamic Revolution and who can blame her? The shah was a dictator who tried to do some good things but the awful things under his regime (like the SAVAK) will forever overshadow his hopes of modernizing Iran.

The most revealing quote to me was the following. "Unfortunately, Iranians are at heart hero worshippers. Whether it is the Rostam of our ancient epic poem the Shahnameh (The Book of Kings), or Iman Hossein, the martyr-saint of Shiism, they cling to the notion that one lofty, iconicc figure can sweep through their lives, slay their enemies and turn their world around. Perhaps other cultures also believe in heroes, but Iranians do so with a unique devotion. Not only do they fall in love with heroes, but they are in love with their love for them." (pg. 147) I was starting to slowly observe the same thing from the few books I had read on Iran. I don't want to be so presumptios to say they are 'in love with their love' for heroes but I do think they seem to place all their eggs in one basket, so to speak. But I'm still learning about Iran but it's a country that truly fascinates me and maybe one day, I will be fortunate enough to visit.(less)

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Jan 12, 2011 Ale-xpressed rated it 5 of 5 stars

I haven't found any book as rewarding, informing and engaging as Iran Awakening. Standing in the tube on way to work those chilly winter mornings, reading it has made me silently smile, left my eyes wet, and sent shivers down my spine at other times. Critical but not offensive, inspiring but not patronizing.

Iran's first female judge, world's first Muslim woman to win a Nobel prize: that's Shirin Ebadi. She is an Iranian who has lived every day of her life in Iran; who has got to know the system...more

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Sep 25, 2010 Teghan rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: memoir, current-events

I read this book right after I finished 'Infidel'. Due to my overwhelming response to that book, no follow up could even compare. 'Iran Awakening' is the memoir of a woman who fights injustices in Iran. I found the book more to be an annotated modern history of Iran, while fascinating, I wanted to know more about her personally. Her feelings and thoughts as the atrocities were committed around her. What I did take from the book in addition to the well explained history, was an example of what ca...more

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Jul 03, 2009 Carole rated it 5 of 5 stars

I got this book to try and get a better understanding of the recent history that has lead to the current events in Iran. And it was perfect. It went into enough depth to give a really solid background on the history, but it's couched in a really engaging narrative that keeps it from feeling like a textbook.

Shirin Ebadi won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2003 for her work as a lawyer defending dissidents, women, and other victims of the Iranian regime. She is deeply religious and very strongly believes...more

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Jan 31, 2013 Maxine rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: asia, iran

I don't know how many truly exceptional people there are in the world, but Shirin Ebadi is one of them. Islam is a very controversial subject right now, with a lot of people thinking it's a faith born out of hate and violence. Of course it's not; Shirin Ebadi shows very well in her book that as with almost anything, Islam is what you make it. She's spent her entire life holding very strong beliefs about what Islam should be, how Muslims should behave, how people should be treated, and her views...more

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Sep 16, 2012 Carmen rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shirin Ebadi is one of the most courageous pioneers of human rights in our time. As I read her memoir, I occasionally had to stop and remind myself to breathe as she graphically described the conditions of living in Iran for women like herself and their families. My experience with the revolutions and protests of the '70s left me believing that activism propelled communities and governments into a more progressive era for everyone. Not so, as history and the dictates of the Islamic Republic have...more

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Jul 06, 2010 Khaya rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: islamicwomen, memoirs, thank-god-i-wasn-t-born-there

Definitely one of the better books on Iran from an insider's perspective.

Shirin Ebadi grew up in pre-revolutionary Iran, where she studied law and became a judge at the age of 23. After the revolution, Ebadi was forced to resign her position because she was a woman and was relegated to the position of frustrated clerk. Eventually she was able to work as a lawyer and became an activist on behalf of Iranian women, children, and political dissidents. In her memoir, Ebadi chronicles not only the eve...more Definitely one of the better books on Iran from an insider's perspective.

Shirin Ebadi grew up in pre-revolutionary Iran, where she studied law and became a judge at the age of 23. After the revolution, Ebadi was forced to resign her position because she was a woman and was relegated to the position of frustrated clerk. Eventually she was able to work as a lawyer and became an activist on behalf of Iranian women, children, and political dissidents. In her memoir, Ebadi chronicles not only the events of her adult life but the ebb and flow of political unrest in Iran itself over the post-revolution decades.

Ebadi's brave struggle was admirable, reminiscent of Ayaan Hirsi Ali in Infidel. I was a bit confused, though, at her ability to engage in such subversive activities and emerge relatively unscathed. She writes about successfully getting the Iranian media to arouse sympathy for her defendants -- what about censorship? And although she was officially on a death list, she was never actually killed and was only imprisoned once, for a relatively short term. Marina Nemat of Prisoner of Tehran: A Memoir suffered a great deal more for far lesser crimes. I know life in Iran can defy logic but I still felt confused, even more so when Ebadi made oblique references to knowing the government would never harm her (although she did fear for her daughters). Why would the government never harm her? What protection did she have?

With that said, Ebadi's memoir is readable and engaging and her story fascinates. Ebadi's position on the West is also interesting -- although one would expect her to embrace American ideals, Ebadi actually airs her frank disapproval of American involvement in Iran, feeling that Iran needs to get to a better place without America's intrusion. Ebadi never apologizes for Iran but her love for and loyalty to her country come through loud and clear, to the point where she expresses resentment of friends who fled after the revolution. To me, this is why her perspective is so important and relevant -- Ebadi criticizes Iran not as an embittered and disillusioned individual who idealizes the West, but as a proud Iranian who wants to see Iran regain its own unique stance.(less)

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Mar 18, 2013 Eddy Allen rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: arts-and-historical

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Nov 07, 2012 Mohammed rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

كنت ابحث منذ فترة عن كتاب يروي بعض التغيرات التي حصلت في ايران بعد الثورة الاسلامية، بالاضافة الى كتاب يصور لي ايران قبل الثورة. هذا الكتاب قام بذلك خير قيام.

ان قصة هذه المرأة العظيمة قصة رائعة، وينبغي علينا ان نقرأ قصتها لنرى كيف قام رجال الدين بهضم حقوق المرأة باسم الاسلام.

عموماً، تتحدث شيرين في هذا الكتاب عن حياتها المليئة بالاحداث. في البداية، تصور لنا كيف كانت ايران قبل الثورة. كان هناك الكثير من الظلم والاجحاف والفساد في عهد بهلوي وكانت تنتقد تلك الفترة. ثم تحدثت بعد ذلك عن الثورة وكيف انه...more

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Nov 04, 2012 ريم الصالح rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

هذا الكتاب مرعبٌ جدا.!
دموي إلى حد أن تتقزز من بشاعة ما تقرأ..

كنت قد قرأت "أن تقرأ لوليتا في طهران" قبل هذا الكتاب
فاطلعت على جزءٍ أليم جداً بصورةٍ أدبية لتلك المحبة
لروايات نابوكوف و جين اوستن..
ولكن هنا، أنت أمام سياسية حقوقية ظُلمت وسلب حقها بممراسة القضاء
بل وكابدت العيش في بيئة موبوءة بأفكار تحض (الرجل) على أن يعزل المرأة عن كامل حقها..!
سواء العمل في جهات العمل الحكومية، أو في التعبير عن الرأي، وكل ذلك باسم الاسلام..!
وكل ذلك خطأ بالطبع.!!

تكشف القاضية السابقة شيرين عبادي والحائزة على جائزة نوبل...more

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Jul 05, 2011 Katherine rated it 3 of 5 stars

I read this book for my international relations class. I'm glad I did, because before reading it I knew basically nothing about Iran. Shirin Ebadi is an amazing person and her life story is fascinating. However, the writing can get a little dry at times. Ebadi is definitely not and emotional writer. Her passion for her work and her love for Iran show clearly, but other emotions such as her love for her family are less apparent. For example, she discusses how her daughter wants to leave Iran to g...more

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Aug 08, 2011 Mark Konrad added it

I am really glad i read this book. Like most americans i knew very little about Iran and was puzzled as to why Iran took the American hostages back in the 1980's. This books gives a brief history of Iran and how it came to be so radicalized. It was very nice to read the words of a Iranian feminist giving the iranian perspective on some events that occured in her country that we were only privy to through an american filter media. Once i began talking about the book to others, It also helped open...more

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Mar 24, 2013 Ruth rated it 3 of 5 stars

This book was okay. It is written by Shirin Ebadi, a very impressive person. She is an Iranian legal expert, who at one time was a judge. In 2003, she wins the Noble Peace Prize.

Throughout the decades, when many of her colleagues and friends fled the country, she stayed, loyal and strong. This is her country, too. You have to admire that, although it is subversive and dangerous in the Islamo-fascist world. All the author really wants to do is live a peaceful life, contribute to society, and rai...more

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Mar 23, 2007 Claire rated it 2 of 5 stars

What an amazing woman! Lawyer/judge turned activist in Iran. You may know her as the lawyer who took on the case of Zahra Kezemi (the Canadian journalist who was kiled in Iran). This is her first hand account of becoming disillusioned with the revolution, becoming an activist, imprisonment and why she and her family have chosen to stay.

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Nov 05, 2012 Abdulhadi Al-mutairi rated it 4 of 5 stars

يتميز الكتاب بالواقعية حيث إن المؤلفة عاشت الأحداث من خلال مسيرتها الحافلة بالصعوبات والمخاطر واختارت المواجهة والكفاح من أجل حقوق الإنسان بشكل عام في بيئة متشددة وظفت الدين لخدمة أهدافها، وهذا النوع من المؤلفين يتمتع بمصداقية عالية بعكس المنظرين الذين يرون الأحداث من الخارج.

ناقش الكتاب وأثبت من خلال الأحداث كيف للثورة أن تبدأ وكيف تنتهي وقد تغيرت أهدافها مصداقاً للمقولة "الثورة يبدؤها مغامر ويشعلها الشجعان ويقطف ثمرتها الجبناء" حيث بدأ الشباب الثورة داخل أسوار الجامعة احتجاجاً على ارتفاع الرسوم...more

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Jul 27, 2009 Lostinanovel rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Iran Awakening was quite a book. Reads easy, she's a good storyteller. Interesting from different angles as well. Politicly informative. I didn't appreciate the significance of Obama's admission of the US role in the 1953 coup. And their mistrust of the US is pretty understandable as well.

But the story also is inciteful from her personal angle, as a woman and mother. How she backed a revolution that would destroy much of her own personal/professional life is fascinating, especially when others...more

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Apr 24, 2010 Denise rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shirin Ebadi is a winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 2003 for her work as a lawyer in Iran defending human rights. If that sounds like an oxymoron, it is somewhat! She was a judge at the time of the revolution in 1979 and because she was a woman, she was not allowed to work as a judge anymore, she was assigned to be a clerk. She is a courageous woman to stay in that country, but not conform to the expectations of the Islamic government. She has been imprisoned and been on lists to be exterminate...more

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Jan 20, 2010 Celeste rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: biography, great-nonfiction

I think anyone who is interested in making changes for good, women, women's rights, peace, law, revolution, foreign policy, politics, the middle east, Iran's history, hope, or good people in general, should read this book. In fact, I want to say if you're an American you should read this, just so we can better understand Iran.

I found it easy to read. I had a hard time putting it in fact. Before reading this I knew about as much about Iran as a 9-year-old. Somehow within this woman's (amazing) s...more

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Mar 06, 2009 Mikel Mancisidor rated it 4 of 5 stars

¡Cuánto creemos saber sobre Irán y cuánto ignoramos! Esta biografía me ha hecho aprender muchas cosas sobre la intrahistoria de la revolución y del Irán postrevolucionario en la experiencia de una jueza que va perdiendo poco a poco su posición profesional -y su seguridad- por el hecho de ser mujer. Es una historia de tenacidad y de dignidad de una mujer luchadora pr la igualdad y por los derechos humanos. Es la historia de una mujer que se queda, que lucha decepción tras decepción, humillación t...more

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Mar 19, 2009 Nancy rated it 3 of 5 stars

Fascinating...the quality of character it takes to survive, endure, persevere, and occasionally triumph through political upheaval and government policies which oppress women and terrorize citizens. Sherin Ebadi is loyal to Iran, dedicated to justice, clever enough to outsmart ghoulish fear tactics, principled in her response to unjust incarceration, stubborn beyond belief, optimistic against grave odds, visionary to recognize the western vacuum that creates a brain drain from her country and st...more

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Apr 20, 2013 Elham rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

على الرغم من أني لا أنجذب كثيراً لقراءة السير الذاتية .. لكن تملكنى شغف وفضول معرفة قصة شيرين عبادي الحقوقية والقاضية الفائرة بجائزة نوبل والتي ناضلت من أجل حقوق الإنسان وحرية التي أجحفها النظام الأصولي في إيران

تحكي "شيرين " فترة هامة من تاريخ إيران وهي ماقبل الثورة والإطاحة بـ"مصدق" ونفي الخميني وكيف أنها نصارت الثورة في بدايتها ثم كفرت بها بعد ذلك وتحدثت عن حرب إيران مع العراق ووقعها على الشعب الإيراني
وتحدثت عن الإحجاف الذي لحق بالقوانين التي تخص المرأة
وتتحدثت عن الظلم والقهر والإستبداد والعن...more

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About Shirin Ebadi

Shirin Ebadi (Persian: شیرین عبادی - Širin Ebâdi; born 21 June 1947) is an Iranian lawyer, human rights activist and founder of Children's Rights Support Association in Iran. On October 10, 2003, Ebadi was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her significant and pioneering efforts for democracy and human rights, especially women's, children's, and refugee rights. She was the first ever Iranian to hav...more

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Books by Shirin Ebadi

The Golden Cage: Three Brothers, Three Choices, One Destiny

Iran Awakening: A memoir of revolution and hope

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Quotes from Iran Awakening

“ليس الدين مايعيق المرأة , بل الإملاءات الانتقائية التي يقوم بها الذين يتمنون عزل النساء عن العالم” — 12 people liked it

“ولدنا لنعاني لأننا ولدنا في العالم الثالث . المكان و الزمان مفروضان علينا . ما من شيء يمكن فعله سوى التحلي بالصبر” — 8 people liked it

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Iran Awakening

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