An Anthology by Iranian and Afghan Women Poets
On sale – 26 November 2024
Songs of Freedom features remarkable poems by 10 Iranian and Afghan poets living in Exile.
A book "full of absence and desire. It will haunt you.” said George Szirtes, poet and translator, author of The Photographer at Sixteen.
In this anthology, ten women poets from Iran and Afghanistan share their ideas, emotions, desires and worldviews with lovers of poetry, in celebration of life and freedom. The book is an ode to the Woman, Life, Freedom movement, and in memory of Jina Mahsa Amini – a Kurdish young woman who died in custody as result of brutal treatment by the Iranian regime’s ‘morality police’ in September 2022. Featuring poems by: Azita Ghahraman; Ava Homa; Ziba Karbassi; Soheila Mirzaei; Sana Nassari; Nasrin Parvaz; Mehrangiz Rassapour (M. Pegah); Shirin Razavian; Muzhgan Saghar Schaffa; and Rouhi Shafii. With an introduction about the events and the role of literature in resistance movements by Shahrzad Mojab, professor of Women and Gender Studies at University of Toronto.
“These poems by Afghan and Iranian women writers in exile are a poignant and moving record of recent persecution and subjection. What is most striking about the anthology as a whole is that these women seem to share a language of resistance that braids lyric voice and reverie to the hard facts of lived experience. Remarkably, however, the lyricism never softens the impact of the physical and mental violence at their core but rather accords it a resonance, a dreamlike quality that carries it deep into the hearts of listeners and readers alike. Through the powerful deployment of clearly original voices — ably conveyed by the translators into English — this anthology will give anyone contemplating the embattled situations of women in Afghanistan and Iran a sense of hope. These are voices that sing while they reprimand, lament and upbraid.” –David Kinloch, poet, author of In Search of Dustie-Fute
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