Tehran, Oct 15: Nobel Peace Prize winner and human rights activist Shirin Ebadi returned to Tehran late last night to be greeted by a crowd of thousands at Tehran airport and immediately called for the freeing of all political prisoners. "I hope political prisoners will be freed," Ebadi, the first Muslim woman and first Iranian to win the prize, told reporters after she stepped off an Iran Air Boeing 747 from Paris.
Thousands of people, most of them women, had descended on Tehran airport for her homecoming. As the area surrounding the city centre Mehrabad Airport was brought to a standstill by bumper-to-bumper traffic, people were seen abandoning their vehicles and covering the final few kilometres on foot. An organising committee set up by supporters of Ebadi to plan festivities for her return from Paris had called on women to make the symbolic gesture of wearing white rather than the usual black preferred by the Islamic regime. For her part, Ebadi was sporting a red headscarf. While in Paris, she angered hardliners here by not covering her head as Iranian law demands. Bureau Report