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Protest

A handwritten sign with Woman, Life, Freedom (Jin, Jiyan, Azadi) written on it in English and Kurdish
Pirehelokan, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
#WomanLifeFreedom: A Year Since “Jina’s Calendar” Began
By Poupeh Missaghi
As the anniversary of Mahsa-Jina Amini’s killing approaches, Poupeh Missaghi brings WWB’s #WomanLifeFreedom series to a close with a reflection on how the ongoing protests have changed Iran and how much more work remains to be done.
A pen-and-ink drawing of pedestrians looking downcast and concerned. A woman holding an image of...
Image © Syd Fini. The image depicts a video of Leila Mahdavi, walking around and showing people a photo of her son. Siavash Mahmoudi was sixteen when he was killed by the regime’s bullets on September 21, 2022, during the protests.
Scenes from Woman Life Freedom
By Syd Fini
In a series of pen-and-ink drawings, Iranian artist Syd Fini portrays key figures in the country’s ongoing Woman Life Freedom protests.
Multimedia
People holding hands circling a fire on a street
Photo via the author
Reflecting on One Hundred Days of Woman Life Freedom
By Razieh Mehdizadeh
You came up the stairs of the Haghani subway station, and with you the life of the whole nation of Iran came up its throat, leaving its body.
Translated from Persian by Poupeh Missaghi
A black silhouette with a soccer ball over the chest over red flames and a yellow background with...
Image by Omar Momani
Men without Women
By Moeen Farrokhi
There was not one single woman present in any of the stadiums I had attended during any of my teams’ matches.
Translated from Persian by Poupeh Missaghi
a barefoot man chained to a post
Photo via social media
Khodanur
By Mahdi Ganjavi
Oh Khodanur, / Your half-finished dance / Makes walking on earth unjust.
Translated from Persian by the author
A crop of the Stop Executions Poster depicting two hanging outlines over the words No more executions...
Poster designed by Iman Nabavi
Mornings of Hell in Iran
By Anonymous
Every night I wake up several times. I have nightmares of executions.
Translated from Persian by Poupeh Missaghi
Four girls with their backs turned to the camera holding up their headscarves with their hair down
Photo via social media
I Am a Witness
By Anonymous
For a while now, I’ve stopped pulling up my scarf to cover my hair when I pass by the guards.
Translated from Persian by Poupeh Missaghi
a family collage behind a pair of eyes
Photo via Celina Naheed
Reasons I Feel like a Bad Iranian During a Revolution
By Celina Naheed
Because I fear for my family whose faces I only know from albums
A black wire bird against a colorful background
Photo via Khashayar “Kes” Mohammadi
Day by Day
By Saeed Tavanaee Marvi
The little girl told her mother: / I wish my hair was made of fire
Translated from Persian by Khashayar “Kes” Mohammadi
January-2023-WomanLifeFreedom-Roya-Amigh-artwork-feature
Close-up of "#WomanLifeFreedom," Roya Amigh. Thread on paper, 2022. By arrangement with the artist.
WomanLifeFreedom
By Roya Amigh
I aim to commemorate the many beloved lives taken from us during the Woman, Life, Freedom uprising in Iran. 
Woman Life Freedom, #mashaamini, and #iranrevolution written in chalk on pavement
Farshid
By Somayeh Noroozi
You might not believe this, but in that little autumn prison courtyard, the dogs and humans are grieving together, wishing for freedom together.
Translated from Persian by Poupeh Missaghi
A portrait of Ko Ko Thett in red suspenders standing in front of a field of yellow flowers
Picking Off New Shoots Will Not Stop the Spring: An Interview with ko ko thett
By Eric M. B. Becker
Even under a most repressive censorship regime or even in a most watched jail cell, writers and artists will find channels to express themselves.
Two swallows in flight
Photo by Julian on Unsplash
Spring
By Nga Ba
Dreams, denied, / turned into maps.
Translated from Burmese by ko ko thett
A family photo on sidewalk of Tehran near a parked motorcycle
Friday Evening Story
By Aida Ahadiany
The boy lay down in the middle of the street. All alone.
Translated from Persian by Poupeh Missaghi
A cluster of pigeons on a sidewalk
Photo by Sahar Sakhaei on Instagram
Conversations
By Sahar Sakhaei
I thought about the eyes of the girl standing tall with her cut hair. Suddenly, the sun rose.
Translated from Persian by Poupeh Missaghi
Black Persian text on a white background
Photo by Zia Nabavi on Instagram
In Conversation with the Prison
By Zia Nabavi
He needed a phone more than anyone in our prison ward.
Translated from Persian by Poupeh Missaghi
A bust of Lenin lying on the grass
Photo by Daniil Onischenko on Unsplash
Apartment No. 9: Goodbye, Lenin!
By Oleksiy Chupa
“We toppled Lenin!” exclaimed Firman after a dramatic pause.
Translated from Ukrainian by Uilleam Blacker
The Lights of the Donbas
By Danyil Zadorozhnyi
then there’s the war / that flabby, shriveled, animal word “war”
Translated from Russian by Yuliya Charnyshova & Isaac Stackhouse Wheeler
War of the Species
By Michel Nieva
Completely unaware that this was the kind of sacred moment when you pledge your undying allegiance to a team, through thick and thin, I stated my choice.
Translated from Spanish by Rahul Bery
Young Russophonia: New Literature in Russian
By Hilah Kohen & Josephine von Zitzewitz
These writings spark immediate conversations through rapid-fire literary texts rather than typical online commentary.
Letter to Ukraine
By Danyil Zadorozhnyi
Like the border between the word leave / and the concept of returning
Translated from Russian by Isaac Stackhouse Wheeler & Reilly Costigan-Humes
blurry image of the Church of the Resurrection of Christ in St. Petersburg behind a canal
Murashko olga, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
About Time to Smile at Homeless People
By Dinara Rasuleva
Dinara Rasuleva questions received notions of home and national identity in this poem about her relationship to Russia.
Translated from Russian by Hilah Kohen
Multilingual
Destined from Birth
By Xenia Emelyanova
Enough of their butchery.
Translated from Russian by Katherine E. Young
Multilingual
“Reality (Unfortunately?) Varies”: A Conversation Between Galina Rymbu and Ilya Danishevsky
By Galina Rymbu
It seems to me—perhaps naively—that poetry has the ability to examine things in a maximally authentic way.
Translated from Russian by Anne O. Fisher & Helena Kernan
Poets of Protest
By Words Without Borders
Words Without Borders introduces Manal Al-Sheikh and Mazen Maarouf, two poets living in exile in Scandinavia.
From “Kumait”
By Najem Wali
After reading Crime and Punishment when he was a student he had contemplated killing Umm Husayn.
Translated from Arabic by William Maynard Hutchins