Shirin Ebadi – Iranian, Muslim, lawyer, Nobel Peace Prize laureate – has personally experienced violence, oppression, and terrorism in the name of religion. Rising above these tribulations, she became a fighter for human rights and an activist for peace and stability. Her weapons are words: the only way to convince people that religion can never justify violence and murder.
Born in 1959 in Schwanenstadt, Austria, Gudrun Harrer is an Islamic Studies scholar, political scientist, Middle East expert, and reporter for the Austrian newspaper Der Standard. She teaches Middle Eastern Modern History and Politics at the University of Vienna. In 2006, she was a Special Envoy to Iraq from the Austrian Presidency of the Council of the EU and the Chargée d’Affaires of the Austrian Embassy in Baghdad. In 2015, she won the Bruno Kreisky Prize for her life’s work in journalism.