Release: 16.11.2021

IRAN – Freedom Is Female

  • A fascinating portrait of Iranian society.
  • Golineh Atai, daughter of political exiles from Iran, uses her in-depth knowledge to show what is really going on in the country. 
  • "Atai's unvarnished stocktaking fulfils an invaluable enlightening function." Die Welt on Atai's previous book Truth is the Enemy.

Golineh Atai was five years old when she left Iran with her parents, but the country and the way it has developed since have remained a core interest. Iran is a topic close to her heart. In this book, she paints a portrait of how the mullahs’ theocratic government kept the country in a firm grip for forty years, snuffing out any democratic tendencies – and she does so from the point of view of nine women. Atai tells the story of a cleric’s daughter who became an internationally renowned activist. And the story of a young employee, loyal to her government, who publicly removed her headscarf in Tehran – a revolutionary act that has inspired countless Iranian women up to the recent protests following the death of Mahsa Amini, who was arrested by the police for "bad hijab". Others talk about prison and escape, the daily battle for a bit of dignity, for being able to raise their voice in public or even just let their hair flow in the wind. They know: Only the freedom of women creates freedom in society.

Golineh Atai is a journalist and author with many awards and prizes to her name. She paints a fascinating picture of Iranian society since the Islamic Revolution, offering findings and insights that no external observer could make. 

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  • Publisher: Rowohlt Berlin
  • Release: 16.11.2021
  • 320 pages
  • ISBN: 978-3-7371-0118-9
Cover Download Iran – die Freiheit ist weiblich
Iran – die Freiheit ist weiblich

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Joanna Vortmann

Golineh Atai

Golineh Atai was born in Teheran in 1974 and was five years old when she came to Germany with her family. She was the ARD’s Cairo correspondent between 2006 and 2008 before taking on a range of assignments and roles for the network’s Tagesschau and Morgenmagazin programmes. From 2013 to 2018 she was the ARD correspondent in Moscow; she is currently based in Cologne and reports for WDR. She has received multiple awards for her journalism, including the Journalist of the Year Award 2014, the Peter Scholl Latour Prize and the Hanns Joachim Friedrichs Prize.