Please join us on Thursday, December 7 from 18:00 for the book presentation ” To the Other Side of the Concrete Wall ” with Niloufar Nematollahi and Katayoon Berzgalar.

To the Other Side of the Concrete Wall is a collection of translated essays by feminists in Iran that attempts to imagine beyond walls of oppression by navigating the intersections of writing and the everyday becomings of a feminist revolution. The book includes writings of Elaheh Mohammadi and Niloofar Hamedi, the journalists who were arrested in September 2022 after covering the news of Jina Amini’s murder. Niloofar and Elaheh are still in Tehran’s notorious Even prison today. To the Other Side of the Concrete Wall also includes an essay on the experience of arrest and detention at Evin prison told from the perspective of an anonymous writer who was incarcerated following the Jina Uprising which started about a year ago. These pieces together with two essays by Elaheh and Niloofar’s friend and editor-in-chief of the feminist platform Harass Watch, Ghoncheh Ghavami, are brought together and translated into English for the first time in the Other Side of the Concrete Wall.

About the book’s publishers:To the Other Side of the Concrete Wall was seed-funded by BAK and published by Jina Collective. Jina Collective is a Netherlands-based feminist, leftist, anti-capitalist, anti-sexist, and pro-LQBTQ+ activist group that emerged from the Jina Uprising.

Fragment from the book:

“Subsequent visits to the prison yard got better with time. During each visit, our eyes would well up with tears, but we felt more peace and even played games such as ‘Walnut; cracked!’. We rolled up our sleeves to get some vitamin D from the half-dead autumn sun, stretched our bodies, and walked slightly faster to get some exercise. But most of the time we were singing. Singing was one of those glorious, spiritual moments. Roaring and soaring, feeling like flying away from that place. This forbidden voice came out of the forbidden body and could pass through the forbidden walls. Singing was freedom for us. We saw how the tones and voices break the shackles of prejudice and dogmatism and live on in freedom. And what a show! What an empowerment! What a pleasure! We clapped for ourselves; We were staring at the security cameras, laughing out loud, and hugging each other tightly. We were armed with the power of singing together, demonstrating life in the name of those who were struck by death and silence.”