Shadi Sadr

Shadi Sadr is a human rights lawyer and researcher with extensive experience advocating for women’s rights and accountability in contexts of repression and impunity. She is a PhD candidate at Leiden University and co-founder of Justice for Iran (JFI), an organization established in 2010 to combat impunity within the Islamic Republic and hold officials accountable for human rights violations.

In the 2000s, Sadr founded and ran Raahi, a legal center supporting vulnerable women in Iran. She defended women facing death by stoning and others affected by discriminatory laws until the center was forcibly shut down by security forces in 2007. Her activism led to multiple arrests, yet she continued her work and was recognized internationally with awards including the Human Rights Tulip and the Alexander Prize from Santa Clara University’s Law School.

Sadr is also the co-author of Crime and Impunity: Sexual Torture of Women in Islamic Republic Prisons, a landmark publication documenting systematic abuses. Beyond her legal and research work, she has contributed to global accountability efforts by serving as a jury member for several international tribunals, including the 2015 International People’s Tribunal on Indonesia, the 2017 Tribunal on Myanmar, and the 2018–2019 Tribunal on Forced Organ Harvesting in China. She also co-organized the 2020–2022 Iran Atrocities (Aban) Tribunal.

Her work reflects a sustained commitment to advancing women’s rights, challenging impunity, and strengthening international justice.