Shirin Ebadi was born in Hamdan, Iran on June 21, 1947. When she was just one year old, her family moved to Tehran where she was raised and attended school before beginning law school at the University of Tehran in 1965. After passing the internship period, she was sworn in as a judge in 1969, making her the first female judge in Iran. In 1975, four years before the revolution, she was sworn in as the president of Tehran City Court. After the revolution, her applications were rejected and she was unable to practice law so she used this time to write books and articles, which were published in a number of Iranian periodicals. As a lawyer, she campaigned for strengthening the legal status of women and children and she often took up Pro Bono cases for dissidents of the regime. Shirin expressed a number of political views in her book Iran Awakening where she shared her opinion of Islam as religion of harmony and equality, criticizing the select few who have used the religion to pursue an unjust country. She has also spoken out about western intervention in Iran, criticizing foreign interference in the country and the 1953 overthrow of Prime Minister Mosaddeq by the CIA. As a result of her activist work, she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2003 for her efforts defending democracy and the rights of women and children. She became the first Iranian and the first Muslim woman to win this prize. After winning, Shirin, along with five other Nobel laureates, created the Nobel Women’s Initiative, which seeks to promote peace, justice and equality for women.