When Shirin Ebadi was in prison in Tehran a few years ago for accusing officials of plotting attacks on reformers, her husband petitioned a court to visit her behind bars. "You are a free man now!" was the male-chauvinistic wisecrack of an Islamic judge. "Why don't you take advantage of your freedom?"
Any public official would think twice today about poking fun at Ebadi, whose struggle for human rights in Iran has earned her the 2003 Nobel Peace Prize. In naming Ebadi last week, Norway's Nobel Committee handed a platform to a formidable Iranian voice of conscience, breathed life into the...