Towel
Other
Identifier:
2012.013.001
Description
In the wake of the student protests in Iran in 1999, lawyer Shirin Ebadi offered to represent a family whose son had been killed when armed groups cracked down on the protests. In June 2000 she was arrested on charges of having manipulated the filmed testimony of a defector from one of the armed groups. When Ebadi asked to wash herself in the prison, she was denied a towel. She did, however, have just enough money with her to buy a towel from the prison's store. After her release, Ebadi framed the towel and kept it as a reminder of her time in prison.
