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Works of Radical Imagination

Announcing “Woman, Life, Freedom” edited by Marjane Satrapi

October 11

by Seven Stories Press

Marjane Satrapi’s groundbreaking collection of graphic novel style reporting has been acquired by Seven Stories Press/Seven Stories Press UK. Woman, Life, Freedom captures the unprecedented and inspiring revolution happening in Iran today.

A collaboration between activists, artists, journalists, and academics under the direction of and with contributions by Satrapi, the author of Persepolis and other graphic works, depicts the historic protests that followed the murder of Mahsa Amini, and shows in comics what would otherwise be censored in photos and film in Iran.

"Woman, Life, Freedom is a rallying cry." —from the Introduction

New York, NY + London, UK, October 11, 2024 — The book Woman, Life, Freedom, edited, introduced, and with contributions by Marjane Satrapi and translated from the French by Una Dimitrijević, will be published by Seven Stories Press and Seven Stories Press UK, the press’s publisher Dan Simon announced today. The book will be released to coincide with Nowruz (Iranian New Year) on March 19, 2024 in the US and March 20, 2024 in the UK. The independently published English edition of the book was created in cooperation with the originating independent French publisher, L’Iconoclaste.

On September 13, 2022, a young Iranian student, Mahsa Amini, was arrested by the religious police in Tehran. Her only crime was that she wasn’t properly wearing the headscarf required for women by the Islamic Republic. At the police station, she was beaten so badly she had to be taken to hospital, where she fell into a coma and died three days later. The plight of this 22-year-old woman sparked a wave of protests for women’s and human rights that soon spread through the whole country. Demonstrators adopted the slogan “Woman, Life, Freedom,” and around the world these words are now chanted during solidarity rallies.

Along with Satrapi, who directed the book’s creation, featured artists include Shadnam Adinam, Bahareh Akrami, Bee, Patricia Bolaños, Catel, Coco, Deloupy, Hippolyte, Mana Neyestani, Touka Neyestani, Pascal Rabaté, Rahi Rezvani, Paco Roca, Joann Sfar, Lewis Trondheim, Nicolas Wild, and Winshluss, who is also Marjane Satrapi’s frequent collaborator on her film work, as well as the writers Farid Vahid, Abbas Milani, and Jean-Pierre Perrin.

The book was front page news in France’s biggest newspaper, Le Monde, when it was published in France last week as Femme, Vie, Liberté. The announcement on Friday of the Nobel Peace Prize to the jailed Iranian activist, Narges Mohammadi, underscores the worldwide importance of the issue of women’s freedom and rights. Satrapi will be available for select interviews in the US and the UK when the book is published in English.

"We needed to work with people who knew Iran intimately. Among our chosen experts were Farid Vahid, a political scientist specializing in Iran at the Fondation Jean-Jaurès, Jean-Pierre Perrin, a seasoned reporter previously with Libération and now a contributor to Mediapart, and Professor Abbas Milani, a historian and Director of Iranian Studies at Stanford University. We then reached out to around twenty gifted artists who agreed to produce comics or illustrations based on texts and scenarios prepared by our experts. . . . I contributed a handful of drawings, including the cover, as well as a few written pieces. . . . The result is the volume you are holding in your hands."

—Marjane Satrapi and Abbas Milani in their introduction to the book.


For further information, please contact Ruth Weiner, ruth@sevenstories.com.

WOMAN, LIFE, FREEDOM
Marjane Satrapi et al
Translated by Una Dimitrijević
$35.95 | Trade paperback | 280 pp | 7.5 x 10”
March 19, 2024
9781644214053

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