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A review by _askthebookbug
Until We Are Free: My Fight for Human Rights in Iran by Shirin Ebadi
5.0
// Until We Are Free by Shirin Ebadi
While I was reading Until We Are Free a couple of weeks ago, I couldn't help but realise how women always have it worse in the face of war or anything else that involves violence. From becoming the first female judge in Tehran in 1975 to setting up her Human Rights Center, Ebadi has had a long and tiring fight. It's incredible how she trudged on even in the face of death threats, a failing marriage and state appointed spies who traced her every move. While the Iranian revolution persecuted thousands of innocent people, Ebadi made it her mission to help such families. And this came at a price.
It is worth noting how Ebadi uses dark humour to show the ridiculous ideas harboured by the authorities when Ahmadinejad was in power. She was hounded constantly by his men to the extent of even forcing her to live in exile. Her office was vandalized and an unvarying danger loomed over her family for decades.
Even her Nobel Peace Prize was ridiculed by the government time and again. While Ebadi founded several missions with other Peace Prize winners, it only angered the authorities more. Her refusal to succumb to the religious bigots, the ones in power and to the men who wanted to see women like Ebadi in submission, infuriated them further.
Until We Are Free champions humanity like no other book. Ebadi's sheer determination and unflinching loyalty to help those in need even at the cost of living with collateral damage instills fire in one's heart. It takes immense courage to live amidst such danger, one that reminds you every single day that you may not live to see the next one and when you're a woman it becomes ten times harder. Perhaps this was why I found the book so powerful.
I highly recommend this.
While I was reading Until We Are Free a couple of weeks ago, I couldn't help but realise how women always have it worse in the face of war or anything else that involves violence. From becoming the first female judge in Tehran in 1975 to setting up her Human Rights Center, Ebadi has had a long and tiring fight. It's incredible how she trudged on even in the face of death threats, a failing marriage and state appointed spies who traced her every move. While the Iranian revolution persecuted thousands of innocent people, Ebadi made it her mission to help such families. And this came at a price.
It is worth noting how Ebadi uses dark humour to show the ridiculous ideas harboured by the authorities when Ahmadinejad was in power. She was hounded constantly by his men to the extent of even forcing her to live in exile. Her office was vandalized and an unvarying danger loomed over her family for decades.
Even her Nobel Peace Prize was ridiculed by the government time and again. While Ebadi founded several missions with other Peace Prize winners, it only angered the authorities more. Her refusal to succumb to the religious bigots, the ones in power and to the men who wanted to see women like Ebadi in submission, infuriated them further.
Until We Are Free champions humanity like no other book. Ebadi's sheer determination and unflinching loyalty to help those in need even at the cost of living with collateral damage instills fire in one's heart. It takes immense courage to live amidst such danger, one that reminds you every single day that you may not live to see the next one and when you're a woman it becomes ten times harder. Perhaps this was why I found the book so powerful.
I highly recommend this.