From the streets of Kabul to the forests in Kenya, we gathered a list of stories ─ fiction and non-fiction — all by female authors and about experiences of women around the world. To celebrate and share the stories of women who have shaped our history, here are six books we recommend read in honor of Women’s History Month!
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The Daughters of Kobani | by Gayle Tzemach LemmonBased on years of on-the-ground reporting, The Daughters of Kobani is the unforgettable story of the women of the Kurdish militia that improbably became part of the world’s best hope for stopping ISIS in Syria. Drawing from hundreds of hours of interviews, Gayle Tzemach Lemmon introduces us to the women fighting on the front lines, determined to not only extinguish the terror of ISIS but also prove that women could lead in war and must enjoy equal rights, come the peace. ─ From Stories About Women Who Changed the World by Penguin Random House |
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Unbowed | by Wangari MaathaiIn Unbowed, Nobel Prize winner Wangari Maathai recounts her extraordinary journey from her childhood in rural Kenya to the world stage. When Maathai founded the Green Belt Movement in 1977, she began a vital poor people’s environmental movement, focused on the empowerment of women, that soon spread across Africa. Persevering through run-ins with the Kenyan government and personal losses, and jailed and beaten on numerous occasions, Maathai continued to fight tirelessly to save Kenya’s forests and to restore democracy to her beloved country. ─ From Stories About Women Who Changed the World by Penguin Random House |
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Sisters of Mokama | by Jyoti ThottamIn Sisters of Mokama, Thottam draws upon twenty years’ worth of research to tell this inspiring story for the first time. She brings to life the hopes, struggles and accomplishments of these ordinary women — both American and Indian — who succeeded against the odds during the tumult and trauma of the years after World War II and Partition. Pain and loss were everywhere for the women of that time, but the collapse of the old orders provided the women of Nazareth Hospital with an opening — a chance to create for themselves lives that would never have been possible otherwise. ─ From Stories About Women Who Changed the World by Penguin Random House |
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Things I’ve Been Silent About | by Azar NafisiIn this stunning personal story of growing up in Iran, Azar Nafisi shares her memories of living in thrall with a powerful and complex mother against the backdrop of a country’s political revolution. ─ From Stories About Women Who Changed the World by Penguin Random House |
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The Underground Girls of Kabul | by Jenny NordbergIn Afghanistan, a culture ruled almost entirely by men, the birth of a son is cause for celebration and the arrival of a daughter is often mourned as misfortune. A bacha posh (literally translated from Dari as “dressed up like a boy”) is a third kind of child–a girl temporarily raised as a boy and presented as such to the outside world. Jenny Nordberg, the reporter who broke the story of this phenomenon for the New York Times, constructs a powerful and moving account of those secretly living on the other side of a deeply segregated society where women have almost no rights and little freedom. ─ From Books About the History of Women’s Rights by Penguin Random House |
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The Last Girl | by Nadia MuradIn this “courageous” (The Washington Post) memoir of survival, a former captive of the Islamic State tells her harrowing and ultimately inspiring story. Nadia’s story – as a witness to the Islamic State’s brutality, a survivor of rape, a refugee, a Yazidi – has forced the world to pay attention to an ongoing genocide. It is a call to action, a testament to the human will to survive, and a love letter to a lost country, a fragile community, and a family torn apart by war. ─ From Books About the History of Women’s Rights by Penguin Random House |
Stories About Women Who Changed The World | Penguin Random House
Books About the History of Women’s Rights | Penguin Random House
