About this item
Highlights
- This international anthology marks a world-historical moment: the first ever feminist revolution.
- About the Author: Bänoo Zan is a poet, translator, essayist, and poetry curator, with numerous published pieces and three books.
- 200 Pages
- Poetry, Middle Eastern
Description
Book Synopsis
This international anthology marks a world-historical moment: the first ever feminist revolution. The slogan chanted by the demonstrators in Iran is Woman, Life, Freedom, and it encompasses hopes and ideals for all people everywhere. This anthology echoes that cry. The poems here might be reflections on the present moment, denunciations of injustice, examinations of the poet's own conscience, laments for the fallen, bitter curses, prayers, celebrations of life, and visions of a better future. Bänoo and Cy aim to raise awareness of the women's revolution in Iran and show the world that this cause is alive and will not be put down.Review Quotes
Woman Life Freedom: Poems for the Iranian Revolution features a chorus of voices that both roar and unite, mourn and revive, inviting a feminist movement onto the page. This collection captures the relentless courage of Kurdish and Iranian women, echoing their century-old struggle for justice, dignity, and liberation. The death of Jina (Mahsa) Amini sparked an uprising, manifesting as fierce resilience. In this collection, poets bear witness, lament, and demand freedom. Their words shatter apathy, haunt, and heal, in forms as diverse as the lives they honor and the beauty they unveil amid adversity and atrocities. This is poetry that rages and reckons--a passionate literary revolution.
--Ava Homa, author of Daughters of Smoke and FireDoes poetry matter in the face of injustice and unspeakable violence against women? The poets of Woman Life Freedom: Poems for the Iranian Revolution say yes. Read these passionate, searing accounts of resistance to the state's oppression, and be moved by the young Iranians who took to the streets, paying for their dreams of freedom and equality for women with their lives. You will not be able to look away from these poems. A really, really fantastic collection. What a tour de force. Everyone should read it.
--Julie Rak, Professor and HM Tory Chair, University of Alberta, author of False Summit: Gender in Mountaineering NonFictionA beautiful book that illustrates the struggles of Iranian women and their decades-long battle to gain basic freedoms. There is much strength and truth in every magnificent poem.--Marina Nemat, author of Prisoner of Tehran and After Tehran
An extraordinary collection of powerful poetry celebrating the brave women leading Iran's Woman, Life, Freedom revolution and mourning those who have lost their lives and their freedom. This collection of revolutionary poetry is an astonishing contribution to women's liberation worldwide. A must read for any feminist, especially those of us who might feel that we are living our lives so differently. The rights of women are under attack around the world: poetry is a remarkable instrument in solidarity with this struggle.--Judy Rebick, a leader of Canada's pro-choice struggle and former president of Canada's largest women's group; educator, author of six books, most recently Heroes in My Head
Beautiful and important work. A chorus of defiance and courage, this searing poetry collection decries the appalling subjugation of Iranian people, especially women and girls. At times blazing, at times contained, these poems sing invocations from the page for the dignity and freedom of all human beings, tenderly mixing longing for the usurped beauty and lost history of homeland with rage and grief. In a world that increasingly feels insane and full of despair, this book reminds us that we are not powerless, that reading is an act of protest, solidarity, and revolution.--Jane Muschenetz, winner, California Press Women Communications Prize in Creative Verse, author of All the Bad Girls Wear Russian Accents
It seems absurd to have to say it, but women's voices deserve to be heard. And women should be able to express themselves without fear of violence. And yet there are places in our world where those basic rights are systematically suppressed in pursuit of a warped idea of holiness. That's why this collection is necessary: to remind us not to take these voices for granted, and to assert without equivocation that women's voices are replete with holiness and yearning for freedom. Summoned by the intrepid Bänoo Zan and Cy Strom, the poets assembled here--local and translated, veteran and newcomer--harmonize a dynamic song on behalf of the silenced women of Iran, a song of rage, grief, empathy, and hope.--Adam Sol, poet, author of How a Poem Moves: A Field Guide for Readers of Poetry
Revolutions that aren't merely a changing of the guard take place in the mind and heart first. That is what lifts off every page in this anthology. Every poem acts as a world unto itself, providing a window into a protracted cry for freedom, best encapsulated in three simple words. Woman. Life. Freedom. It is a universal theme and that's what makes this book so important because movements of the mind are not confined by borders and boundaries. The words in this book offer an archival contribution to a spark that led to a fire and that currently smoulders within the ashes. A great archive of a moment and a movement that is on-going.--Samira Mohyeddin, journalist and broadcaster; founder, On The Line Media
Woman! Life! Freedom! A chant as needed now as ever before! Writers from around the world in this throbbing volume of poetry, pen searing and soaring poems that move the human soul. This collection is a small but mighty triumph for the voices of those who believe in freedom, freedom for the women of Iran and for all women.--Lillian Allen, Toronto's Poet Laureate, author of Make the World New
"In short: Woman Life Freedom is an astonishing, riveting, galling, inspiring, infuriating, sickening, saddening, beautiful collection of poetry. For me, anyway, it is a testament of life against one of its great enemies: religion." --Daniel James Sharp, The Freethinker
About the Author
Bänoo Zan is a poet, translator, essayist, and poetry curator, with numerous published pieces and three books. Songs of Exile was shortlisted for the Gerald Lampert Memorial Award. Letters to My Father was published in 2017. She is the founder of Shab-e She'r (Poetry Night), Canada's most diverse and brave poetry reading and open mic series (inception: 2012). Shab-e She'r bridges the gap between communities of poets from different ethnicities, nationalities, religions (or lack thereof), ages, genders, sexual orientations, abilities, poetic styles, voices, and visions. Bänoo calls herself a war correspondent in verse. Others describe her as a political, metaphysical, and spiritual poet.
Cy Strom works as an editor. He holds MA and MPhil degrees in early modern European history and has published in academic and other areas, including the visual arts. He edits in different genres and sometimes languages, and has had a role in developing professional editorial standards and educational materials.