The Wind in My Hair

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THE WIND IN MY HAIR: My Fight for Freedom in Modern Iran, by Masih Alinejad.
(Little, Brown, $28.) In her passionate and often riveting memoir, Alinejad — an Iranian-American journalist and lifelong advocate for Muslim women — unspools her struggles against poverty, political repression and personal crises. “Told poignantly and with a blunt honesty that seems a characteristic of Alinejad’s life and writing, here is a gripping tale that permits us to peek at the inner workings of the Iranian Revolution and consider the question of its health and longevity,” our reviewer, Rafia Zakaria, writes.

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A Memoir That Came to Life When She Removed Her Hijab

The first time Masih Alinejad, an Iranian journalist and activist, walked in public without her hijab was in 2006. She was a 30-year-old columnist for Etemad-e-Melli, a now defunct Iranian daily newspaper, and working on a series of articles in Beirut, Lebanon. Ms. Alinejad, who was on her first trip outside of Iran, was immediately struck by the city’s relatively relaxed attitude toward women’s appearance in public.