Editions

Until We Are Free

Until We Are Free

  • My Fight For Human Rights in Iran

'POWERFUL AND SOMETIMES SHOCKING ...' SUNDAY TIMES

In this powerful book, Dr Shirin Ebadi, Iranian human rights lawyer and activist, tells of her fight for reform inside Iran, and the devastating backlash she faced after winning the Nobel Peace Prize.

Having fought tirelessly for democracy, equality before the law and freedom of speech, Ebadi became a global voice of inspiration. Yet, inside her own country, her life has been plagued by surveillance, intimidation and violence.

Until We Are Free tells shocking stories of how the Iranian authorities eventually forced her into exile. Her sister and daughter were detained, her husband was enmeshed in an espionage plot with another woman, her Nobel medal was stolen from her safety deposit box, and her offices in Tehran were ransacked.

An illuminating depiction of life in Iran today as well as the account of Ebadi's personal struggle to uphold her work and keep her family together, Until We Are Free is ultimately a work of hope and perseverance under circumstances of exceptional difficulty.

Reviews

  • "Fascinating…[shows how] Dr Shirin Ebadi has been affected positively and negatively by her Nobel prize…A must read"

    ARCHBISHOP DESMOND TUTU

  • "Powerful and sometimes shocking…[Ebadi], who is an emblem of her country…has paid a high price"

    SUNDAY TIMES

  • "Compelling"

    Washington Post

  • "One of the most remarkable resistance heroines of our dangerous times"

    DAILY TELEGRAM

  • "A force of nature in and out of the courtroom. Shirin Ebadi is a one-woman human-rights machine….formidable"

    Observer

More from this Author

About the Author

Shirin Ebadi

Born in 1947, Shirin Ebadi trained in law, obtained a doctorate from Tehran University and served as a judge from March 1969 - the first woman ever to do so in Iran. Following the victory of the Islamic Revolution in February 1979 she, and other female judges, were dismissed from their posts and given clerical duties (in Ebadi's case, in the very court she had presided over). She resigned in protest and was, in effect, housebound for many years until finally, in 1992, she succeeded in obtaining a lawyer's license and setting up her own practice. She then represented various high-profile cases of political victims, journalists, child custody cases and others until she was forced to live in exile in London.

Shirin Ebadi

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