Woman, Life, Freedom, 2022-present
After decades of work as a leading women's rights advocate, Mahnaz Afkhami compiled her life's work into a memoir published in the fall of 2022. Her memoir reflected on the inspirational women who helped raise her, her work at the Women's Organization of Iran and as Minister for Women's Affairs, and her efforts during her exile to support women and girls globally.
Within weeks of the book's publication, a massive uprising began in Iran. Jina Mahsa Amini, a young Kursish woman, was detained by Iran's "morality police" for allegedly wearing her hijab incorrectly and died while in police custody under suspicious circumstances. Her death set off months of protests and uprisings led by Iranian women, men, and children, despite harsh oppressive actions taken by the government to quell them.
As a result of the two events coinciding, Afkhami's media appearances and public-facing events from the fall of 2022 through 2023 explored both her memoir as well as the protests unfolding in Iran. Afkhami spoke often about her hopes for the revolution and the "granddaughters" of the women neglected by the Islamic Revolution of 1979.
Afkhami's book served as a guiding example of the long history of advocacy by Iranian women that helped build the modern resistance movement and connected the unprecedented women-led movement to the future of women's rights not only in Iran but on a global scale as well.
