NOBEL CAUSE

The most radical thing about Shirin Ebadi, the Iranian lawyer who won the Nobel Peace Prize last Friday, is her view that there is no conflict between Islam and fundamental human rights. This is no doubt a tough stance to take for a woman who has been jailed for her views and is on a list of people targeted for death by Muslim extremists who don’t appreciate her work on behalf of women, children and others who are abused by the hardliners.

In awarding the prize to Ms. Ebadi, the first Muslim woman to receive it, the committee was clear that it hoped to send a strong message to Islamic clerics in Iran who oppose the reformist government of President Mohammad Khatami. Vice President Mohammad Ali Abtahi, a leading reformist, said the award was “very good news for every Iranian.” The hardliners have remained mute on Ms. Ebadi’s prize.

They shouldn’t. Because her belief that respect for human rights can coexist with Islamic principles has now been endorsed by the broader world community, clerics who insist that their religious beliefs guide their ill treatment of women, children and “nonbelievers” will find that argument harder to make. As observers, including Ms. Ebadi have said, their practices have more to do with their view of masculinity than the teachings of Islam.

The awarding of the Norwegian peace prize to Iran’s first female judge should also send a message to the Bush administration and other world governments that one of the best ways to fight what the president termed the “axis of evil” is to empower moderates in those countries. Ms. Ebadi, despite her strong representation of disadvantaged groups, is such a moderate. Rewarding their work may encourage others to follow a similar path. As Karim Lahidji, the exiled president of the Iranian League for Human Rights says, the prize is a “great victory” for those who support democracy in Iran.

In acknowledging her prize at a news conference in Paris, the 56-year-old Ebadi appeared without the headscarf required by Islamic law. It was not the act of a radical, but of a woman who was just rewarded for finding a way to reconcile Islamic religious beliefs with her ongoing battle to secure personal freedom for all.