Iranian lawyer Shirin Ebadi became the first Muslim woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize yesterday for a fearless defense of human rights in an award designed to spur wider democracy in the Islamic world.
The Norwegian Nobel Committee praised Ebadi -- Iran's first female judge before the 1979 Islamic revolution forced her to step down in favor of men -- for battling to defend the rights of women and children.
Ebadi, 56, won from a record field of 165 candidates including Pope John Paul and former Czech president Vaclav Havel. Many hailed the award but Poland's former president Lech Walesa, the 1983 Nobel winner, said the Polish pope should have won.
The five-member committee said Ebadi, jailed several times during her career and once branded a threat to the Islamic system, was a "sound professional" and a "courageous person" who had "never heeded threats to her own safety."
"We hope that the prize will be an inspiration for all those who struggle for human rights and democracy in her country, in the Muslim world, and in all countries where the fight for human rights needs inspiration and support," the committee said.
"This prize gives me the energy to continue my fight," Ebadi told a news conference in Paris.
She said she would go to Oslo to receive the US$1.3 million prize at the traditional Dec. 10 ceremony.
"It's a great honor to receive this prize. It's not because you're a Muslim that you can't respect human rights, so all real Muslims should be really happy with this prize," she said.
Ebadi is the 11th woman to win since the Nobel prize was founded in 1901, the first Muslim woman laureate and the third Muslim winner -- after Palestinian President Yasser Arafat in 1994 and the late Egyptian president Anwar Sadat in 1978.
Iranian state media reported the award without comment, and reaction otherwise reflected the split between President Mohammad Khatami's reformist government and powerful hardliners.
But Vice-President Mohammad Ali Abtahi, a leading reformist, said the award was "very good news for every Iranian" and a sign of the active role played by Iranian women in politics.
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