Shirin Ebadi, Outside the System

Iranian feminist and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Shirin Ebadi believes that it is not possible to be a human rights activist and serve in government. She says, "A human rights activist must always work among the people, and must campaign and defend people who cannot defend themselves, because it is governments and rulers that abuse human rights. How is it possible to be a government member and be effectively critical of the system you're in?" Before the revolution in 1979, Ebadi was a judge in the Tehran court system.

Sources: "Interview With Nobel Laureate Shirin Ebadi," Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, PeaceWomen.org.

Ebadi, Shirin. "Autobiography: The Nobel Peace Prize 2003," from Les Prix Nobel. The Nobel Prizes 2003, Editor Tore Frängsmyr, [Nobel Foundation], Stockholm, 2004.