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peppersgirl2010's review
4.0
*I was given a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for a fair and honest review.
This is Nobel Prize winner Shirin Ebadi's story of how she tirelessly fought for human rights inside Iran. It was scary and fascinating to see what its really like there and how much worse it got after Ahmadinejad rose to power. Her husband and sister were arrested and she was forced out of the country but continues to fight for the people and her country that she loves. I found Ebadi's determination to fight for what's right in the face of evil inspiring.
This is Nobel Prize winner Shirin Ebadi's story of how she tirelessly fought for human rights inside Iran. It was scary and fascinating to see what its really like there and how much worse it got after Ahmadinejad rose to power. Her husband and sister were arrested and she was forced out of the country but continues to fight for the people and her country that she loves. I found Ebadi's determination to fight for what's right in the face of evil inspiring.
lostinfrance's review
3.0
I am trying to read more intellectual books about other governments.....an attempt to understand the world (does that sound good?....bc it is only partly true). I know nothing about Iran's government.....except Satrapi's commentaries and sitting through International Relations theory classes, so I branched out...
This is about Ebadi's life and then banishment and forced separation from her husband. She fought for the people of her country and attempted to follow the laws. The government did allow it and she was forced to not return in order to protect herself--- while her husband was not granted permission to leave to be with her. Her government forced her life to change in ways that she did not wish to happen to her.
I appreciated this book for the insight into Iranian life--- but I felt like I was dropped into the middle of a conversation and I was never able to find my ground.
Read if you want to know more about the people of the countries you hear about in the news.
This is about Ebadi's life and then banishment and forced separation from her husband. She fought for the people of her country and attempted to follow the laws. The government did allow it and she was forced to not return in order to protect herself--- while her husband was not granted permission to leave to be with her. Her government forced her life to change in ways that she did not wish to happen to her.
I appreciated this book for the insight into Iranian life--- but I felt like I was dropped into the middle of a conversation and I was never able to find my ground.
Read if you want to know more about the people of the countries you hear about in the news.
kimia_hyperfocuser's review against another edition
challenging
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
5.0
thethirdcrouch's review
5.0
I appreciate the honesty of Shirin Ebadi in telling her story so we could have atleast a gauge how the Islamic Republic treated the Iranians during the decade after 2009's elections. I have not read any recent articles about Iran now so I'm not sure how's their status now. But with recent attention to Israel-Palestine conflict or war or struggle, people prefer other terms to properly call what is happening, I found an article ages ago telling Ebadi's opinions about Iran supporting Hamas; young Iranians volunteering to be suicide bombers against Israel. I wonder if Iran still wants to play a role in reinvigorating Islamists fundamentalist ideals in the region even if Hamas is Sunni-- who are disadvantaged minorities of Iran.
I find it hard to finishing this memoir because I just couldn't bear how much vulnerable Ebadi is in telling those stories. I'm wary that she might tell a very devastating injustice that it would just be so sad-- I have troubles with unclinically diagnosed depression.
But what saddens me the most is how the Iranian government, the Islamic Republic, the public officials... how they can convince themselves, every night when they go to sleep, that they are doing it for a better society. It strikes me how a regime could just strio away all of its people's rights and casually tell them they did not. How dictatorship just easily releases thrm of blame and accountability as if no one understands what is right or wrong.
My country lived a dictatorship as well that ended in the first successful peacful revolution. I've read the horrors of standing up to injustice to oppression but it still felt far out there. Somehow reading this one felt real and near and urgent. Maybe because it's still an ongoing struggle in the Middle East. Maybe I've associated the Middle East and Muslims to war and constant struggle.
Right now Myanmar is also under a military takeover and news of police/military senselessly shooting protesters and locking up dissidents were all over during the first few months. With no direct intervention from international organizations or even SEA countries, I wonder how the people endure it. News have died down and I only pray that justice prevail as soon as possible. Israel is bombing Palestine even if they can defend themselves by effectively targetting the missiles from Hamas. I wonder what the Israeli government and supporters tell themselves to convince themselves that what's happening is okay.
Deep down in our core, as humans, we know killing is evil violence is evil. Forcing people out of their homes is not right. Discrimination against race, religion, social status, gender, and so much more are not right. Deep down we know that everyone deserves to live a peaceful, happy, and free life. I don't understand why a lot of us don't embody that understanding.
I find it hard to finishing this memoir because I just couldn't bear how much vulnerable Ebadi is in telling those stories. I'm wary that she might tell a very devastating injustice that it would just be so sad-- I have troubles with unclinically diagnosed depression.
But what saddens me the most is how the Iranian government, the Islamic Republic, the public officials... how they can convince themselves, every night when they go to sleep, that they are doing it for a better society. It strikes me how a regime could just strio away all of its people's rights and casually tell them they did not. How dictatorship just easily releases thrm of blame and accountability as if no one understands what is right or wrong.
My country lived a dictatorship as well that ended in the first successful peacful revolution. I've read the horrors of standing up to injustice to oppression but it still felt far out there. Somehow reading this one felt real and near and urgent. Maybe because it's still an ongoing struggle in the Middle East. Maybe I've associated the Middle East and Muslims to war and constant struggle.
Right now Myanmar is also under a military takeover and news of police/military senselessly shooting protesters and locking up dissidents were all over during the first few months. With no direct intervention from international organizations or even SEA countries, I wonder how the people endure it. News have died down and I only pray that justice prevail as soon as possible. Israel is bombing Palestine even if they can defend themselves by effectively targetting the missiles from Hamas. I wonder what the Israeli government and supporters tell themselves to convince themselves that what's happening is okay.
Deep down in our core, as humans, we know killing is evil violence is evil. Forcing people out of their homes is not right. Discrimination against race, religion, social status, gender, and so much more are not right. Deep down we know that everyone deserves to live a peaceful, happy, and free life. I don't understand why a lot of us don't embody that understanding.
xtina4evahhh's review
informative
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
4.0
I’ve read several memoirs lately by people from totalitarian and/or war-torn countries. I’ve noticed there are a few “types” - those for whom family is everything, and those for whom ideological values are everything. Shirin Ebadi, author of this book, belongs to the second camp. An Iranian human rights lawyer and activist who won the Nobel peace prize in 2003, she risked everything many times to stand up for freedom and human rights of Iranians. Because of her actions, her children and spouse faced death threats and imprisonment from the regime multiple times, but she never wavered in her activism. Her courage and steely determination not to give an inch to the totalitarian regime were formidable.
Yet as a mother, I have to admit there was a part of me that felt a bit squeamish reading some of this. No doubt the world needs people like Ebadi who are bravely willing to sacrifice everything in the fight for freedom and human rights. But when your activism puts your own family at grave risk? I suppose this is how totalitarian regimes manage to stay in power - they know most citizens will not make the same daring choices Ebadi made. I know I wouldn’t.
So the book left me feeling a mix of emotions: awe at the bravery of Ebadi, sorrow for the losses she and her family endured because of her work, anger at the regime, frustration and despair that the regime has managed to cling to power all these years despite the bravery of Ebadi and so many others. Perhaps most stark, it made me feel gratitude to live in the West, which I know is probably not a PC thing to say but whatever. I will take my first world problems any day over living with the type of existential threat and impossible ethical dilemmas Iranians and others living in totalitarian regimes face on a daily basis.