‘Islam Needs to be Understood, not Reforms’

Regarding the controversial headscarf issue in France, she said one of the most fundamental human rights was being able to decide what to wear. She pointed out that young Muslim girls would become alienated from society if suspended from school for wearing a headscarf and might gravitate towards more radical movements as a result of being denied the right to an education.

Appearing on the program without a headscarf, Ebadi was asked: "When you come to Paris, you do not wear a headscarf, but when you go to Iran, you cover yourself. If the regime did not make this compulsory for women, would you still cover your head?" She replied that if the prohibition was lifted in Iran, she would no longer wear a headscarf in her country.