Bio: Mehrangiz Kar

Mehrangiz Kar is an attorney, writer, and activist working toward progress within the framework of the Islamic legal system of Iran as it has developed since the revolution in 1979. Born in southern Iran in 1944, Kar has dedicated her life to political and feminist activism. As a young adult, she moved to Tehran to attend the College of Law and Political Science at the University of Tehran, worked for the Sazman-e TaOmin-e Ejtemaii, or Institute of Social Security. She has been active as a public defender in Iran's civil and criminal courts and has published regularly before and after revolution in several influential and independent Iranian journals, lending her voice to over 100 articles and more than 14 books. Some of her writings include, Children of Addiction: Social and Legal Position of the Children of Addicted Parents in Iran (1990), Quest for Identity: the Image of Iranian Women in Prehistory and History Vol.1 and 11, which she co-edited with Shahla Lahiji, Iran's first woman publisher, Angel of Justice and Patches of Hell, a collection of essays which look at the status and position of women in pre- and post-revolutionary Iran, Women in the Iranian Labor Market (1994), Violence Against Women in Iran, and Legal Structure of the Family System in Iran. She is the winner of International Women of the Year award from both Canada and Italy in 2000, Human Rights Hero prize of 2001 from Amnesty International, and the renowned French honor, the Ludovic Trarieux Human Rights Prize in 2002.