Shadi Sadr

Shadi Sadr (; born 1974) is an Iranian human rights lawyer, journalist, and activist for women's rights.  In 2010 Sadr received the International Women of Courage Award.

 Life 

Shadi Sadr was born in Tehran, Iran in 1974. She studied law, and she received a master's degree in international law from Tehran University in 1999. In 2009, Sadr went to live in Germany.

 Work 
Sadr is an expert on women's legal rights in Iran. Huffington Post Profile She was director of Raahi, a legal advice center for women.  It is now closed.  Sadr also started Women in Iran, a website about women's rights in Iran.  Santa Clara Law School Human Rights Award  As a lawyer, she defended several women activists and journalists in court, after they were sentenced to death.

Sadr worked to stop capital punishment by stoning, especially of women.  The name of this project was End Stoning Forever. This project was started by Women's Field, a women's rights group. 

After the Bam earthquake in 2003, Sadr helped collect food and supplies for women and children in the area.

Sadr was the defense lawyer for Shiva Nazar Ahari, a human rights activist and member of the Committee of Human Rights Reporters.  Nazar Ahari was arrested on 14 June 2009. and is believed to be in Evin Prison.

 First arrest 

In March 2007, the Iranian government arrested 33 women, including Shadi Sadr.  The women were protesting against the trial of five women who demonstrated for women's rights in the One Million Signatures protest of 12 June 2006. Sadr was in jail for fifteen days.  Then she was freed on bail with Mahbubeh Abbasgholizadeh.

 Second arrest 

On 17 July 2009, Shadi Sadr was arrested again.  She was going to Friday prayers with other female activists. Some military men in civilian clothes stopped her.  They did not say who they were.  They beat her and put her in a car. She got away, but they got her again and put her in the car again.  Then they took her somewhere, although she did not know where they took her, she was later able to call her husband. She was released 11 days later on July 28, 2009.

 Awards 

In 2004, Sadr received the Ida B. Wells Award for Bravery in Journalism from Women's eNews 21 Leaders for the 21st Century.
In 2009, she received the Lech Walesa Prize for human rights, freedom of expression, and democracy in Iran from the Lech Walesa Institute Foundation.

She received a Dutch human rights prize, the Human Rights Defenders Tulip, on November 9, 2009.

In 2010 she received the International Women of Courage Award from the United States Department of State.

 References  

Other websites

 Women's Field
 Interview with Shadi Sadr: Collecting Evidence for Crimes against Humanity 
 2010 International Women of Courage Awards, U.S. State Department photostream on Flickr 
Secretary's International Women of Courage Award (U.S. Department of State)

Category:Women who received the International Women of Courage Award
Category:1974 births
Category:Living people
Category:Iranian human rights activists
Category:Iranian lawyers
Category:Iranian journalists
Category:BBC 100 Women