For the Sun After Long Nights: The Story of Iran’s Women-Led Uprising

Journalists Jamalpour and Tabrizy debut with a propulsive account of the 2022 Iranian uprising. The book’s alternating first-person narratives are drawn from letters the authors wrote to each other during the protests—Jamalpour, based in Tehran, delivers an on-the-ground report, while Tabrizy offers analysis from abroad. Together they frame the moment as one of exuberant defiance: “We will not bow down” vows the uncle of the slain woman, Mahsa Jina Amini, whose death in the custody of the morality police—after her arrest for “not dressing appropriately”—triggered the mass movement. The protestors, many of them teens, face down tear gas, rubber bullets, arrests, and executions. Particularly poignant is how deeply poetry is interwoven into the movement, from protestors passing each other uplifting notes—“hand in hand we become the sea” reads one passed to Jamalpour—to pop singers releasing anti-government ballads: “For my sister, your sister and our sisters, for the changing of rotted minds,” sang one 25-year-old performer sentenced to a nearly four-year prison term. The authors offer captivating insight into the historical role women have played in Iranian politics and critique Western depictions of the Shah’s reign as more liberating for women, noting that his policy of forced unveiling pushed religious women into the shadows. As the narrative builds, Jamalpour and Tabrizy present the country as caught in a vice-like trap between the regime at home and Western hostility abroad. It’s a gripping view of a nation at a crossroads. (Sept.)