Iranian human rights lawyer and former judge, Shirin Ebadi, is one of the most outspoken advocates for women’s rights in the Muslim world. Her long career of activism earned her last year’s Nobel Peace Prize, and she made headlines in December by accepting the award in Oslo, Sweden, while not wearing a headscarf. This appearance at the Nobel awards ceremony was contrary to Iranian law, which requires women to don the traditional Muslim women’s headwear both within the country and abroad. Conservatives in the Iranian government have criticized Ebadi for this and other appearances without the hijab. Iranian newspaper accounts featured carefully composed and cropped photos to avoid showing her flouting the headscarf law. But despite Ebadi’s choice to go bareheaded abroad, she nonetheless strongly affirms Muslim women’s rights to dress as they decide, including wearing the hijab in Western countries, such as France and Germany. “People should be free,” she told the German magazine DER SPIEGEL, “If a woman wants to wear the Islamic headscarf in Europe, she should be allowed to.”