‘Iran's government has committed unpardonable acts,’ says Shirin Ebadi In her first interview since the start of this year's uprising in Iran, lawyer Shirin Ebadi talks to FRANCE 24 about the Iranian people's desire for democracy. Ebadi was Iran's first female judge before losing her right to practice in 1979 amid the creation of the Islamic Republic. She has dedicated her life to defending the most vulnerable in Iran, and tried to demonstrate the contradictions of the Islamic laws. Awarded the Nobel Prize in 2003, she was forced to flee Iran in 2009.