When a theocratic state represses women in the name of following religious dictates, the agency of the women comes in conflict with the state. If they assert their agency by defying the oppressive norms and policies, they are often branded as 'cultural traitors'. Iranian women rights activist, Shirin Ebadi, the Nobel peace laureate of 2003 is a case in point. An account of her confrontation with the state due to her work as an activist and the state's retaliatory action against her to paralyze her activism, is penned in her memoir, Iran Awakening (2006). Studying this memoir, this article has investigated how Ebadi, a feminist and a practicing Muslim woman, managed to reconcile herself with her religion, Islam even when Islamic policies enacted by the state stripped Iranian women of most of their rights.
Senior Research Scholar Fellow, Department of English, West Bengal State University, Barasat, North 24 Parganas, West Bengal
