Woman, Life, Freedom

Description

Winner, ALA ALEX Award An urgent, groundbreaking and visually stunning new collection of graphic storytelling about the present Iranian revolution, using comics to show what would be censored in photos and film in Iran. Marjane Satrapi, author of Persepolis , returns to graphic art with this collaboration of over 20 activists, artists, journalists, and academics working together to depict the historic uprising, in solidarity with the Iranian people and in defense of feminism. On September 13th 2022, a young Iranian student, Mahsa Amini, was arrested by the morality police in Tehran. Her only crime was that she wasn’t properly wearing the headscarf required for women by the Islamic Republic. At the police station, she was beaten so badly she had to be taken to the hospital, where she fell into a deep coma. She died three days later. A wave of protests soon spread through the whole country, and crowds adopted the slogan “Woman, Life, Freedom”—words that have been chanted around the world during solidarity rallies. In order to tell the story of this major revolution happening in her homeland, Marjane Satrapi has gathered together an array of journalists, activists, academics, artists, and writers from around the world to create this powerful collection of full-color, graphic-novel-style essays and perspectives that bear witness: Contributing artists: Joann Sfar, Coco, Mana Neyastani, Catel, Pascal Rabate, Patricia Bolanos, Paco Roca, Bahareh Akrami, Hippolyte, Shabnam Adiban, Lewis Trondheim, Winshluss, Touka Neyastani, Bee, Deloupy, Nicolas Wild, and Marjane Satrapi. 3 expert perspectives on Iran: long-time journalist for Libération and political scientist Jean-Pierre Perrin; researcher and Iran specialist Farid Vahid; and UC Berkeley historian Abbas Milani, Director of the Iranian Studies program at Stanford University. Woman, Life, Freedom demonstrates that this is not an unexpected movement, but a major uprising in a long history of women who have wanted to affirm their rights. It will continue. Review: Woman, Life, Freedom-A continuing struggle every woman has the indelible right to have! - Woman, Life, Freedom is a sobering reminder of the continuous struggle women have had through time and the suppression that women continue to suffer in Iran and other neighboring countries. Marjane creatively conveys the message of lived experiences, combined with historical references by way of a graphic non-fiction anthology, bringing to the forefront a fractions of the amount of VICTIMS that were murdered in the pursuit of freedom and their basic rights. There are a slew of tragic reminders interjected throughout the book, each victim/assassinated person, a marker in time that these tragedies continuously happen and the BARBARIC assassinations of innocent brave individuals continue in great numbers. Everyone of them deserved better. Sadly this sadistic, controlling, disrespectful, backwards mentality continues to this day, with only occasional positive moments of growth, which eventually regress to the origins of the past as leaders change. Forcing women to be powerless, silent, cover up and be devoid of the basic human rights, in my opinion is REPUGNANT. I pray one day there will be real MEN in control again that once and for all will permanently usurp this tyrannical behavior that to the rest of the world just conveys their weakness-not strength. May God continue to comfort the family's that lost their loved ones and may he protect those that are still engaged in the fight for their basic human rights. This is something that should be taught in schools. Marjane is extremely courageous standing up for this injustice. This book makes a difference. Review: Read this! - I felt I learned quite a bit and I tabbed a few spots to come back to, as I see a lot of parallels close to home and internationally. It made me more aware of what’s going on around me and now I have better context when reading about Iran. I loved the graphic novel/comic style of the book and it made it very accessible for most readers.