Iranian Nobel laureate Ebadi to get UK rights award

London, Dec.8 (ANI): Iranian Nobel laureate Shirin Ebadi, the first Muslim woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize for championing human rights and campaigning for democracy in Iran, will be presented with an award from a British Government-financed human rights organization.

International Services, a York-based development agency that helps disadvantaged people in places such as the Middle East and claims to be "non-political", will present Dr Ebadi with the Award for Global Defence of Human Rights.

The move is likely to ramp up Iran's "propaganda" machine against the UK and further strain relations between the two countries.

According to The Times, the organisation annually receives 1.6 million pounds, the bulk of its budget, from the Department of International Development (DFID).

This comes after Dr Ebadi, 62, who has spent the past six months away from Iran attacking the regime's alleged human rights abuses and electoral fraud, recently had her 2003 Nobel peace medal confiscated by the Iranian Government and her bank account frozen on the claim that she owes 250,000 pounds in tax.

Baroness Haleh Afshar, president of International Services, said she anticipated the Iranian regime - which has been condemned by its detractors worldwide for its human rights record - to attack Dr Ebadi for accepting the award from what it often claims as its "enemy" Great Britain.

That the non-monetary award will be presented at the House of Lords. (ANI)