Read This: Iran Awakening
Non-fiction by Shirin Ebadi with Azadeh Moaveni (Knopf Canada)
REVIEW BY Vladi Ivanov
When she was raped, tortured and murdered in her native country of Iran, Canadian photojournalist Zahra Kazemi’s cruel fate revealed to Canadians the injustice that pervades the lives of Iranian women and dissidents under the regime of the Ayatollahs. Now, this reality is placed in its most critical context by the woman who has fought for justice in Kazemi’s case. Once a judge during the rule of the Shah, human rights lawyer Shirin Ebadi has since waged a dogged war against the system that demoted her to a courtroom clerk by virtue of her gender after the Islamic Revolution of Iran in 1979. The struggle of Ebadi is so inextricably tied with that of her nation’s journey towards social justice in the face of violence and oppression that these memoirs manage to be both touchingly autobiographical and enlightening in their historical and political relevance. Ebadi’s work is essential reading for those who seek to understand the role of Islam, human rights and the international community as they pertain to one of the most enigmatic nations in a politically charged region.
