I have read many memoirs this year, and since many of the points that they bring up are the same, I decided to break away from tradition and, instead of a monthly round-up, do a memoir round-up. Celebrities and public figures lives in a realm of their own. I don’t think they should, though, quite… Read More Book Review Round-Up: January to June 2023, Part 2 – Memoirs
Anyone who has run a book review website or a bookstagram knows that sometimes, you just have to read for the sake of reading, and take time off reviewing. That’s what I’ve done for the last few months and it has been glorious. For the most part, it gave me time to be discerning, for… Read More Book Review Round-Up: January to June 2023, Part 1
This project has been quite the journey; a big thank you to you for reading along, for sharing, as well as for reaching out, either in the comments or through my DMs, to offer loving encouragement and checking in on me. Yes, it was difficult delving so deeply into these stories, because although ultimately, these… Read More #OurStoryIsOne: Some Thoughts On The Ten Bahá’í Women Martyred in Shiraz 40 Years Ago
One of the reasons I decided to write these posts in order of age is that I wanted to have mother and daughter at both ends of the series of posts. Well, almost, since Roya was the second youngest of the group. But let’s just roll with it! Ezzat-Janami Eshraghi was born in 1926 in… Read More #OurStoryIsOne: Ezzat-Janami Eshraghi, 57
I thought it would get easier, writing about the two older women in the group of ten that I think of as “The Shiraz Ten”. But guess what? It isn’t. Because 46 and 57, the ages of the last two women left to cover, is not old; they both had a lot of life left,… Read More #OurStoryIsOne: Nosrat Ghufrani Yaldaie, 46 years old
Can you believe that only now, almost at the end of the list of women executed on that fateful day, we have reached the first who is above the age of 30? The first seven of the ten women (to read their stories, click here) were either in their late teens or in their twenties. … Read More #OurStoryIsOne: Tahereh Arjomandi Siyavashi, 30 years old
Despite knowing the end of each of these stories—or perhaps because of it—I have been really enjoying writing these posts. I had read about these women before; however, writing takes a whole other level of understanding, and also, there is a lot more information about them available nowadays, including gorgeous pictures. A special thanks to… Read More #OurStoryIsOne: Zarrin Moghimi-Abyaneh, 29 years old
At this point in the campaign, I can imagine that the stories, at least at the end, are starting to sound repetitive. As I was writing yesterday’s post, I couldn’t help but wonder if this is why we tend to tune out stories about people like these ten women. A bit like the stories of… Read More #OurStoryIsOne: Mahshid Niroumand, 28 years old
Akhtar Sabet, daughter of Hossein and Havva, was born in the town of Sarvestan in the south of Fars Province. She was a happy, intelligent, selfless, devoted, disciplined, and committed person who lived a simple life. She was a woman with a strong personality and a rich social education, and the latest entry in my… Read More #OurStoryIsOne: Akhtar Sabet, 25 years old
Many readers have reached out to me to tell me they find these stories that I am telling as part of the #OurStoryIsOne campaign to be quite heartbreaking. And yes, they are–but at the same time, they are incredibly powerful. These women were killed because they stood up for justice and love, for equality and… Read More #OurStoryIsOne: Shahin (Shirin) Dalvand, 25 years old
