The moral guards stop a young student from Tehran because something is wrong with her clothes. Whether it is because her hijab does not fit properly or because she is wearing loose hair. The information about this varies. The fact is, the moral guards are tearing at her clothes, ripping them apart. Whereupon Ahoo Daryaie, as the young woman is called, rips off the rest of her clothes in protest and walks around the campus in her underwear. And this in a country where women are beaten to death because a strand of hair peeks out from under the hijab.
She is dragged into a car and taken to a special facility where she is likely to be tortured like so many fellow sufferers these days.
Perhaps widespread publicity is the only thing that will save her from disappearing.

For this reason, I continue to tell the story from the perspective of two women in exile. I don’t want to turn Ahoo into a character in a novel, but to draw attention to her fate in the form of a novel. Because telling stories is my form of public relations work. My way of reaching people.

That’s what the “Solidarity Campaign” is about:

When the Iranian student Ahoo Daryaie is arrested in Tehran, the news also reaches the Hamburg sorority Gamma Xi Delta. The Iranian-born students Pari and Enissa decide to draw attention to Ahoo’s fate with a daring protest action. But what begins as a symbolic act of solidarity turns into a profound confrontation with cultural constraints, body shame and the question of how much one is prepared to risk for one’s convictions. When their action goes viral on social media, the two young women not only have to face the reactions of their conservative community, but also their own fears and doubts.

A moving reflection on the price of freedom and the unifying power of female solidarity.