LONGLISTED FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD • A moving exploration of the 2022 women-led protests in
Iran as told through the interwoven stories of two Iranian journalists “Unlike anything I’ve
read . . . A searing courageous and ultimately beautiful book filled with the spirit of the
movement that it covers.” —Ben Rhodes author of The World as It Is: A Memoir of the Obama
White House In September 2022 a young Kurdish woman Mahsa Jîna Amini died after being
beaten by police officers who arrested her for not adhering to the Islamic Republic’s dress
code. Her death galvanized thousands of Iranians—mostly women—who took to the streets in one of
the country’s largest uprisings in decades: the Woman Life Freedom movement. Despite the
threat of imprisonment or death for her work as a journalist covering political unrest state
repression and grassroots activism in Iran—which has led to multiple interrogation sessions
and arrests—Fatemeh Jamalpour joined the throngs of people fighting to topple Iran’s religious
extremist regime. And across the globe Nilo Tabrizy who emigrated from Iran with her family
as a child covered the protests and state violence knowing that spotlighting the women on the
front lines and the systemic injustice of the Iranian government meant she would not be able to
safely return to Iran in the future. Though they had met only once in person Nilo and Fatemeh
corresponded constantly often through encrypted platforms to protect Fatemeh. As the protests
continued to unfold the sense of sisterhood they shared led them to embark on an effort to
document the spirit and legacy of the movement and the history geopolitics and influences
that led to this point. At once deeply personal and assiduously reported For the Sun After
Long Nights offers two perspectives on what it means to cover the stories that are closest to
one’s heart—both in the forefront and from afar.
