Of
Moritz Baumsteiger
When the Shah was expelled from Tehran in 1979, the lawyer Shirin Ebadi was chairwoman of the Tehran city court – a little later she was deposed and worked at the same chamber as a secretary. Years later, when she was licensed to practice law, she was defending political prisoners and building human rights organizations. In 2003 she was therefore awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, as the first Muslim woman and the first Iranian. Repression increased as a result, and Ebadi left the country in 2009, just a day before hardliner Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was re-elected president. Since then, Ebadi has lived in exile in London, from where the 75-year-old speaks via video link – purple orchids behind her, a tea glass in front of her with the inscription “favourite grandmom” on it.