Los Angeles: Shirin Ebadi remembers a time years ago when she was one of 100 women judges in the courtrooms of Iran. And she recalls what it was like to be removed from her job when the Islamic revolution changed everything.

"After the revolution, we were informed that women could not be judges anymore and women judges were demoted to administrative levels," she said in an interview in Los Angeles on Tuesday. "I became the clerk of the court in which I had been the judge. Of course, I couldn't tolerate that and I got early retirement."

But retirement was not her style. Ebadi was reborn as a human rights activist, published 14 books and founded three nonprofit organisations. In 2003, she won the Nobel Peace Prize.

Now she and other women Nobel laureates are launching a campaign to promote a peaceful solution to US-Iran tensions.

Jody Williams, an American who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1997 for her work to outlaw the use of land mines, has teamed with Ebadi to spearhead the initiative.

"Shirin and I feel a particular responsibility to let the world know that the people of Iran and the United States do not support violent resolution of this crisis," Williams said.

"No more military attacks. No more war," they said in a written statement. "We demand a non-violent world where human security is the basis of our common global security. We pledge to create such a world." The new Women Nobel Peace Laureates' Initiative also includes Betty Williams of Northern Ireland, Rigoberta Menchu Tum of Guatemala and Wangari Maathai of Kenya.

The group of Nobel laureates was being honoured on Tuesday night in Beverly Hills by the Feminist Majority Foundation.

Event organiser Mavis Leno, leading the foundation's effort to help Afghan women and girls, said the fight for human rights worldwide must be linked to women's rights.

"There have been dozens of studies done on the need for women to have a voice in society," she said. "To the extent that women have a voice in the culture, the culture becomes peaceful and prosperous."

Ebadi and Williams believe they can have an impact. Thirteen years after Ebadi began advocating for women's rights in Iran, the government decided that Islam did not forbid women from being judges.