As we enter a new year, the Human Rights Foundation (HRF) is pleased to present a selection of books from our community that might help spark your next big idea in 2024. These authors are HRF staff or Oslo Freedom Forum speakers and their lessons are timeless.
From the crackdown of the Uyghur people in China to the fight for freedom in Saudi Arabia to a courageous woman’s gripping story of escape from North Korea, here are some powerful must-reads:
BOOK
The Girl with Seven Names: A North Korean Defector’s Story
Hyeonseo Lee
North Korean defector, activist, and OFF speaker
Lee provides a powerful account of her struggle to escape one of the world’s most repressive dictatorships, avoid repatriation, and reach freedom.
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BOOK
Zarifa: A Woman’s Battle in a Man’s World
Zarifa Ghafari
Exiled Afghan activist, politician, and OFF speaker
In her memoir, Ghafari, Afghanistan’s youngest female mayor and an outspoken human rights activist, provides her unparalleled perspective on Afghanistan over the last two decades.
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BOOK
Because I Have To: The Path to Survival, The Uyghur Struggle
Jewher Ilham
Uyghur author, human rights advocate, and OFF speaker
In 2014, Ilham’s father, Ilham Tohti, a Uyghur scholar, was detained and sentenced to life by the CCP. Ilham shares her efforts to fight for her father and includes testimonials from Uyghur camp survivors.
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BOOK
The Wind in My Hair: My Fight for Freedom in Modern Iran
Masih Alinejad
Iranian activist, OFF speaker, and HRF International Council member
This extraordinary memoir tells of Alinejad leaving Iran, challenging the country’s Ayatollah-imposed patriarchal impositions, and sparking the movement against compulsory hijab, which spurred the current Woman, Life Freedom movement in Iran.
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BOOK
La isla oculta: Historias de Cuba
Abraham Jiménez Enoa
Cuban journalist and OFF speaker
In “La isla oculta” (The Hidden Island), Jiménez Enoa provides a collection of stories of ordinary Cubans living in hardship under the country’s 64-year-old communist dictatorship.
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BOOK
The Fear: Robert Mugabe and the Martyrdom of Zimbabwe
Peter Godwin
Zimbabwean journalist, filmmaker, and OFF speaker
Godwin describes the brutal terror campaign of longtime Zimbabwe dictator Robert Mugabe, launched after losing the 2008 election and coined “the Fear.”
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BOOK
The End of History and the Last Man
Francis Fukuyama
Renowned scholar, author, and OFF speaker
First published in 1992, Fukuyama’s analysis of Western liberal democracy, whose global ascendency occurred after the Cold War, continues to spark debate and discussion, cementing itself as a modern classic work of political philosophy.
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BOOK
Enlightenment Now
Steven Pinker
American author, professor, and OFF speaker
Pinker describes how the values of the Enlightenment — science, reason, humanism, and progress — continue improving our world, arguing that life is getting progressively better for most people.
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BOOK
Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin
Timothy D. Snyder
American historian, professor, and OFF speaker
Snyder provides a history of the mass murders committed by the Nazi and Stalinist regimes, drawing parallels between their politics of tyranny.
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BOOK
Check Your Financial Privilege
Alex Gladstein
HRF chief strategy officer
Gladstein details the global adoption of Bitcoin by people living under authoritarian regimes and how it can offer a way to escape financial repression.
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BOOK
Foreign Agents: How American Lobbyists and Lawmakers Threaten Democracy Around the World
Casey Michel
Director of HRF Combatting Kleptocracy Program
Coming out August 2024. Pre-order it now.
Michel investigates the threat posed by US lobbyists working on behalf of foreign dictatorships, how they’ve deepened the breadth of kleptocratic networks, and the scope at which they are secretly affecting American democracy.
