Shirin Ebadi's Until We Are Free

Shirin Ebadi uses her novel Until We Are Free as an opening into a world that we could never imagine. A world where the freedom of speech is not a freedom given by the government but persecuted by the government. Where political activists and defenders of human rights are looked at as criminals. A world where she was once able to practice law as a judge and live securely in her home in Tehran with her loving husband and two daughters. However, Ebadi describes that this is no longer the case in Iran. She speaks out about all the attempts of the Iranian Government to strike her down as well as those around her because of her insistent need to be the voice of the voiceless. Out of true love and patriotism for her country, Ebadi practices law as a human rights defense lawyer after her former position was deemed unfit to be served by a woman. No matter the odds that were pit against her, whether it be death threats, the loss of her marriage, or the many failed attempts to prove to the world the awful hardships being
Leung Wah, a political activist for democracy in Hong Kong. He had been missing since the November of the previous year however the government did not seem too interested in the search for him, contrary to the wants of his fellow activists. It was assumed that he had been detained by the Chinese police as he went missing “at the same time as revelations that China had detained several academics who worked in Hong Kong or the United States.” He had previously attended a meeting for a group called the “Alliance for a Democratic China” taking place in the United Sates. The biggest concept of an authoritarian government is its opposition towards democracy and giving its’ people the chance to decide who represents them. Instead of understanding that people want their rights, the Chinese Government felt the need to get rid of one of the few men who would not stand for