Nobel peace laureate Ebadi urges Iranians to keep up protests
DUBAI - Iranian Nobel Peace laureate Shirin Ebadi urged the people of Iran to engage in civil disobedience and press on with nationwide protests that are posing the boldest challenge to its leaders since pro-reform unrest in 2009.
Saudi-owned pan-Arab daily Asharq Al-Awsat quoted Iran's most famous human rights lawyer as saying Iranians should stay on the street and that the constitution gave them the right to hold demonstrations.
Following six days of protests that have rattled the clerical leadership and killed 21 people, the country's elite Revolutionary Guards on Wednesday deployed forces to quell unrest in three provinces.
The protests, which began over economic hardships suffered by the young and working class, have evolved into a rising against the powers and privileges of a remote elite, especially supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
