Growing up in Iran after the 1979 revolution, Maryam Shojaei watched her brother Masoud become one of the country’s most celebrated soccer players, the captain of three World Cup teams. Yet Maryam, her mother and her sister could never go to Tehran’s famous Azadi Stadium to watch him play. For more than forty years, women and girls in Iran were banned from entering sporting arenas, risking arrest, beatings and imprisonment if they dared to break the law.
This is the true story of how Maryam bravely took on both her own government and FIFA, the world’s most powerful sports organisation, to fight for women’s rights. With the support of activist friends and her beloved family – and in solidarity with other protesters like the Blue Girl and the White Scarves movement – she tirelessly campaigned around the globe, eventually reaching the halls of the United Nations to plead her case.
Filled with courage, intrigue, danger and hope, Azadi Means Freedom is an inspiring memoir of perseverance, family and one woman’s determination to open the stadium gates for millions.
