"Democracy, freedom and equality are rights of men, if there is some left over it will be given to women," Shirin Ebadi, the first Iranian and female Muslim to receive the Nobel Peace Prize, said at a lecture Tuesday.
Ebadi said that, though much reform is still required to reach a true democracy in Iran, the nation has awakened.
More than 65 percent of Iranian university students are female and more Iranian females are entering professions in medicine, education, engineering and parliament, she said.
Despite the Iranian females' advancement, inequality between Iranian men and women remains prominent, Ebadi said. According to Iranian law, the testimony of two women in court is equal to the testimony of a single man.
Ebadi stressed that it is not Islam that is incompatible with democracy, but rather the Islamic dictatorship.
Ebadi also said that gender inequality does not only exist in Iran and said she hopes countries like the United States will join forces with the International Criminal Court to prevent dictators from sleeping well at night.
"Democracy will not be granted easily," she said at the end of her speech. "But, like anything important, democracy must be fought to obtain."
The Kennedy Political Union and Women's Initiative sponsored the event.
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