A Palestinian activist jailed at sixteen after a confrontation with Israeli soldiers
illuminates the daily struggles of life under occupation in this moving deeply personal
memoir. “I cannot even begin to convey the clarity the intensity the power the photographic
storytelling of They Called Me a Lioness .”—Ibram X. Kendi internationally bestselling author
of How to Be an Antiracist ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: Kirkus Reviews “What would
you do if you grew up seeing your home repeatedly raided? Your parents arrested? Your mother
shot? Your uncle killed? Try for just a moment to imagine that this was your life. How would
you want the world to react?” Ahed Tamimi is a world-renowned Palestinian activist born and
raised in the small West Bank village of Nabi Saleh which became a center of the resistance to
Israeli occupation when an illegal Jewish-only settlement blocked off its community spring.
Tamimi came of age participating in nonviolent demonstrations against this action and the
occupation at large. Her global renown reached an apex in December 2017 when at sixteen years
old she was filmed slapping an Israeli soldier who refused to leave her front yard. The video
went viral and Tamimi was arrested. But this is not just a story of activism or imprisonment.
It is the human-scale story of an occupation that has riveted the world and shaped global
politics from a girl who grew up in the middle of it . Tamimi’s father was born in 1967 the
year that Israel began its occupation of the West Bank and he grew up immersed in the
resistance movement. One of Tamimi’s earliest memories is visiting him in prison poking her
toddler fingers through the fence to touch his hand. She herself would spend her seventeenth
birthday behind bars. Living through this greatest test and heightened attacks on her village
Tamimi felt her resolve only deepen in tension with her attempts to live the normal life of a
daughter sibling friend and student. An essential addition to an important conversation
They Called Me a Lioness shows us what is at stake in this struggle and offers a fresh vision
for resistance. With their unflinching riveting storytelling Ahed Tamimi and Dena Takruri
shine a light on the humanity not just in occupied Palestine but also in the unsung lives of
people struggling for freedom around the world.
