My book Defiant Dreams (written with Sola Mahfouz) covers half a century of Afghan history through the lens of women: the women of the 1970s who experienced relative freedom of education, dress, and more; the women of the early 2000s who navigated a cultural tug of war; and the girls and women today who live under the most restrictive regime in the world for women. Masses of women across the country gathered in the streets without their hijab; once a symbol of the regime’s ubiquity, women became a symbol of the resistance. But it will remain true that Iran’s women and the men who allied with them cracked the foundation of the Iranian regime in a way it has been simply unable to come back from.
Author: March 16, 2026
Published at: 2026-03-16 00:00:00
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