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A review by thethirdcrouch
Until We Are Free: My Fight for Human Rights in Iran by Shirin Ebadi
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.