Thank you to NetGalley and Random House for this free readers edition. In exchange I am providing an honest review.

My country, I will build you again,
If need be, with bricks made from my life.
I will build columns to support your roof,
If need be, with my bones.
I will inhale again the perfume of flowers
Favored by your youth.
I will wash again the blood off your body
With torrents of my tears.
(Simin Behbahani)

Ebadi closes her newest title with the above words from Iranian poet Simin Behbahani. It's a fitting wrap up to this book from Nobel Peace Prize winner Shirin Ebadi. Ebadi has spent her adult life fighting for human rights in her home country of Iran. She's accomplished much as a woman in that culture, she's a lawyer, she served as a Judge in Tehran's courts for a number of years, and she has led several different movements fighting for equality. She's a worldwide speaker, being invited to speak at prestigious venues all over. She's also currently in exile from her home country of Iran. If she enters back in they will arrest her. So she continues to fight for her country outside of her country. She is relentless, tireless, and compelling.
I'm grateful to have read this account from Ebadi. To have insight into a country that so often the media I see about it is negative. To hear from someone who loves the nation and reveals its humanity. To read about the fight for human rights and realize, in many ways, the things we fight for in our individual nations are universal. Ebadi has the endurance that is necessary in order for countries to progress. Along with others who possess the same drive and passion, Iran's quest for human rights will one day be realized through Ebadi's tireless efforts.

Until We Are Free is the autobiographical account of author Shirin Ebadi's rise against the tyrannical Iranian government and fight for human rights. Ebadi demonstrates fierce courage when she faces losing her law business as well as her family, friends and even her life.

This book is one you won't be able to put down. It reads like a movie and does not stop from start to finish. By the end, you'll be cheering Ebadi on and will be inspired to take a stand and fight for what you believe in.

I will be recommending this inspiring book to my friends and anyone looking for a new favorite read.

*I received an advanced reading copy from the publisher for my honest review. All opinions are my own.*

In her author's note, Shirin Ebadi writes that her aim was to create awareness about the toxicity and immense damage a police state can enact on the nation it oppresses. Her book does that, and more. It makes me, as an American, feel privileged even in our own time of growing civil unrest. This book is a warning towards possible future outcomes, and offers a great number of lessons to be learned.

A poignant memoir by a Nobel Peace Prize recipient that makes me appreciate my freedoms and our democratic systems (however flawed they may be).
It IS a tough read, not only because of its visceral content, but also because the book reads more as a discombobulated log book of events that transpired rather than a true story that pulls the reader in and keeps him engaged.

I decided to read Until We Are Free: My Fight for Human Rights in Iran by Shirin Ebadi for three reasons. One, I'm always looking to better understand cultures from around the world. Two, I think human rights are worth fighting for. Three, I admire people who are willing to put their whole lives on the line to fight for the rights of not only themselves but others. I started to read Ebadi's story unsure what to expect. The story was filled with moments of hope and moments of utter despair that took me on an emotional roller coaster. I laughed at times and fought back tears at others. I felt outrage and fear and joy. Ebadi tells her life story through the lens of her fight for human rights without denying what her fight for the rights of not only herself but others cost her, personally and professionally. At times, she downplayed her losses in comparison to other people's, but even then her story made me think. Sometimes, we use words so carelessly, but for people living under a truly dictatorial regime, careless words are death sentences, sometimes even careful words are death sentences. Yet, it is important that words that shine light on atrocities are spoken and written and shared with the world. Ebadi tells the story of how she worked her whole life to speak for those who aren't in a position to speak for themselves. Ebadi's story of dealing with the Iranian government are enough to give anyone chills but remind us that there are real people living under oppressive rule everyday and there are real people living under those regimes fighting for the rights of themselves and others. Until We Are Free is a well written and engaging book that is at once thought provoking, heartbreaking and inspiring.

Wow. Now I understand Iran so much better and the brutality of the dictatorship. They took everything from her, a Nobel Peace Prize winner -- her country, land, husband, even the prize.

Absolutely fascinating memoir from a Nobel prize winning human rights lawyer out of Iran.

This book was written before the American election of Donald Trump. And yet, in many places, it sounds like a warning. Writing about the Western-named "Arab Spring" she said it was wrongly named (and calls it the tumult of 2011), she describes Morsi's election in Egypt in particularly harsh terms: "What should a society do when a leader that is elected through a democratic process then seeks to subvert the very legal foundation on which the state, constitution, and electorate that voted him into power is based on? Can you allow a democratically elected leader to essentially destroy and subvert the principles that put him in power in the first place?"

This book is tinged with regret and anguish as the Nobel Peace Prize winner finds herself exiled from home. It is warm and engaging. I only wish we had heard more details about the cases she faced - but for various reasons, including the safety of those still in Iran - details are often only sketched out unless it directly happened to her.

She is not sparing of the cost of her living of her ideals, including the effects on her daughters and her husband.

A peek into life in Iran and the devastation that can be wrought by repressive regimes, it was well worth reading.

Written in 2015 (before the 2016 election in the U.S.), this book sadly feels like a cautionary tale for Americans about the danger of sliding from a measure of democracy and freedom to tyranny and dictatorship. Ebadi's scathing observations about the tragedy of the so-called "Arab Spring" that only led to worse situations in most places were especially compelling.

What I don't know about the world is a lot. How lucky am I to be a woman living here is very.

Even though the US has rampant sexism, racism and homophobia, it's nothing like Iran. Bless the people that stand up for human rights in this world. Those of us here, we have no idea what it's like to to really truly fear and suffer over government.