Ebadi was born in 1947. Her father, Muhammad Ali Ebadi, was an important lawyer and law professor who contributed significantly to the writing of trade laws. Ebadi chose to follow in her father’s footsteps, training to be a lawyer at the University of Tehran. During the 1970s she supported the reforms of leader, Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, referred to simply as the shah, as he worked to increase the rights of women and to reduce the powers of the nation’s Muslim religious leaders.
In 1975 Ebadi became the first woman judge. She held the position of president of the city court of Tehran, the capital city of until 1979. She married Javad Tavassolian, and they have two daughters who were born in the 1980s. After the revolution of 1979, which deposed the shah and instated a conservative women were no longer allowed to have such important jobs, and Ebadi was forced to give up her position.
