Houzan Mahmoud is a Kurdish feminist, writer, public lecturer and anti-war activist. She is the co-founder of Culture Project, an online and print magazine that gives a platform to Kurdish voices. She has written for the Guardian, openDemocracy, Independent and New Statesman.

Acknowledgements

Introduction - Houzan Mahmoud

1. For the Execution of My Son, I Did Not Cry; There was Smoke Coming from My Soul - Told by Mother Sabria and written by Amira Mohammed

2. The Last Cigarette Butt Before Execution - Told by Nazanin Hasan and written by Amira Mohammed

3. A Stolen Childhood - Bayan Saeed

4. Run Away: A Vision from a Woman's Perspective - Bayan Salman

5. There is a Sorrow in my Heart that I Cannot Console - Susan Shahab

6. The Prison Speakers Played Islamic Verses - Kobra Banehi

7. Breaking the Bars of Home and Becoming a Peshmerga - Farah Shareefi

8. Fighting an Islamic Regime - Nasrin Ramazanali

9. Fuchsia Flower of My Brother (Nasiri Khoshkalam) - Nahiya Khoshkalam

10. The Explorer Who Watched from a School Window - Bayan Nassih

11. The Lost Photos of Engagement - Shahla Yarhussein

12. My Story - Diba Alikhani

13. At the Red Prison, They Want Workers - Rozhgaar Mustafa

14. On Art, Womanhood, Being the 'Other' - Avan Omar

15. In Search of Kurdishness: Our History, My Life - Simal (Anonymous)

16. "To Be Ruken or not to Be Buket?" - Ruken Isik

17. Life is an Ongoing Struggle - Khanda Rashid Murad

18. A Woman of the Homeland of Rojava - Nafia Aysi Hasso

19. A Handful of Blood - Khanda Hameed

20. Except for Poetry, Nothing Else Shields Me - Hero Kurda

21. Once Upon a Time in Rojava - Deejila Haydar

22. A Day at Tel-Rafiat - Seveen Jimo

23. This is the Story of My Life - Lanja Khawe

24. I Struggle for Two Types of Liberation: Gender and Human Liberation - Dashne Nariman

25. What Motivated me to Write? - Zhala Hussein

Index