Iran: Nobel Peace Prize Laureate's group banned

Adnkronos International:

Iranian authorities banned on Thursday the human rights group founded four years ago by a group of lawyers including Nobel Prize laureate Shirin Ebadi. The group was set up with the aim of representing political prisoners detained in Iranian jails and to support their families to ensure that their rights are respected. No official reason was given for the banning of the Association of human rights' defenders, which was the only Iranian group within the International Federation of Human Rights (IFHR), a worldwide federation of rights groups. READ MORE

Shirin Ebadi, a 59-year-old attorney and human rights activist, was awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace in 2003, becoming the first Iranian to receive the prestigious award. Ebadi was also the first female judge in her country, serving as president of the Tehran city court, from 1975 until the advent of the Islamic Republic in 1979, after which women were banned from such posts.