Iranian Nobel laureate and exiled activist Shirin Ebadi has urged the West not to allow the nuclear standoff with Tehran to overshadow concerns over the Islamic republic’s human rights record.

Ebadi welcomed the recent progress between the West and Iran over its nuclear program during talks in Istanbul.

However, Ebadi added that she objects to any efforts to “shake the hand of friendship with a government that for the past 30 years has been fighting human rights.”

Ebadi said Iran’s feminism movement is the largest in the Middle East because of the high educational level among Iranian women and because so many Iranian men understand that true reform will come only when women’s rights are guaranteed.

Ebadi made the remarks at a foreign policy forum in Chicago.

Based on reporting by AFP