One Woman's Way

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The third-floor apartment is simple, decorated with kitschy paintings of pastoral scenes and family photos. One of her daughters, a law student named Nargess, 20, says she used to complain that the family could easily afford to live in one of the trendier neighborhoods in North Tehran. But her mother "insisted that we have a modest home, car, clothes," she recalls. "She told me, 'I must work for the people in Iran, so I must be like them to feel their pain, and they must feel comfortable with me.'"

As she does every evening, Ebadi retreats to her basement office, filled with law books, her favorite abstract paintings by Iranian artists and citations from human- rights groups. Even here, in her den, there's no time for rest. Phone calls come from journalists around the world. Her voice is hoarse from nonstop talking. A curl of brown hair peeks from her sky blue headscarf, and she wears a brown manteau — a raincoat-style garment that modern Iranian women prefer to the traditional black chador. She is warm but businesslike, her expression moving from mother's glow to lawyer's gravity as she settles in behind her small uncluttered desk, and explains that her aim now is to help root as many nongovernmental organizations in Iran as she can. Nothing will be gained, she believes, if the quest for human rights is limited to a few activists.

She has already handed over her children's-rights organization to other campaigners, and hopes to do the same with another group, the Center for the Defense of Human Rights. Next, she wants to establish new ngos that deal with issues ranging from battered wives to clearing land mines left from the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war. "There is a lot of work in Iran that has to be done," she says. "My dream is to work in many different fields." A small but growing cadre of activist women is getting involved. "Mrs. Ebadi has become a role model for young women," says Shadi Sadr, 30, a lawyer and advocate. "When women see what a woman from a patriarchal society has achieved, they feel more confident to continue their struggle. The prize has given us confidence and pride that had been taken away."

	The prize proves the path I have taken is the right one — SHIRIN EBADI

Ebadi's new heightened profile has led to intense speculation among Iranians, especially admirers, that she might now enter Iranian politics, perhaps running for a seat in parliament next year. She rejects the idea out of hand "It is governments who violate human rights," she says. "An advocate of human rights should remain among people and remain the spokesperson for the silent people."

But she's already taking the heat familiar to Iran's reformist politicians. Since the announcement of the Nobel, there has been a rise in the number of death threats against Ebadi. It doesn't help that commentaries in the hard-line press routinely accuse her of being a tool of the West. Iranian hard-liners are plainly angry that she has taken up cases that have not only exposed the crimes of the Islamic regime but questioned the right of the mullahs to rule. One member of parliament ominously compared her to Salman Rushdie, the British author the late Ayatullah Khomeini ordered put to death for his novel The Satanic Verses. A group of clerics in the holy city of Qom complained that if the government had carried out Khomeini's orders to "cut the unclean tongues of infidels," the Nobel Committee would never have dared award the prize to Ebadi.

Concerned that she might be assaulted — and wanting to avoid the international condemnation that would bring — the regime recently began providing her with a car, bodyguard and driver. An episode last week shows why she needs protection. While she was delivering a speech to the all-women Al Zahra University in Tehran, 50 bearded thugs raced toward the podium shouting "Death to Ebadi!" A throng of students bravely surrounded Ebadi and pushed her down a stairwell to a basement office, where she was rescued by police. Ebadi's husband, Jawad, a 60-year-old electrical engineer, believes in her work, but his drawn face shows the pressure the family is under. "She deserved the prize," he says. "She is a peaceful woman. She has chosen her way." "My father tries to be relaxed," says Nargess, "but he is not as courageous as my mom."