'For the Sun After Long Nights' tells of Iran's Woman, Life, Freedom movement

WBUR | By Here & Now Newsroom

Published September 23, 2025 at 12:05 PM EDT

The cover of "For the Sun After Long Nights" and co-author Fatemah Jamalpour. (Courtesy of Pantheon Books and Joan Susie)

In 2022, a young Kurdish woman died after being arrested and severely beaten for not adhering to the Islamic Republic’s dress code. Widespread demonstrations followed, mostly led by young women.

Now, journalists Fatemeh Jamalpour and Nilo Tabrizy tell the story of that uprising in the new book “For the Sun After Long Nights: The Story of Iran’s Women-Led Uprising,” which has been longlisted for the National Book Award.

Host Jane Clayson speaks with Jamalpour about the book.

Book excerpt: ‘For the Sun After Long Nights’

By Fatemah Jamalpour and Nilo Tabrizy

Excerpted from “For the Sun after Long Nights” by Fatemeh Jamalpour and Nilo Tabrizy. Reprinted by permission of Pantheon Books, an imprint of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House LLC. Copyright © 2025 by Fatemeh Jamalpour and Nilo Tabrizy.

This article was originally published on WBUR.org.