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5 Great Readings for Banned Books Week

Posted on September 18, 2022

An annual event celebrating the freedom to read, Banned Books Week has rarely seemed more relevant than it does this year. We've pulled together five short readings that celebrate free expression:

Habibe Jafarian, author of "For the Love of the Books"
  1. For the Love of the Books: A memoir of a girl growing up in Iran's most religious city, reading forbidden literature.
  2. Also a memoir, An Iranian Metamorphosis tells a cartoonist's story of being thrown in jail over a single word.
  3. The stunning & accessible Chinese graphic fiction Sharing is banned in China.
  4. Also banned in China, An Interview with Wu Wenjian tells the story of a young artist-turned-protester (For a deep dive into China's censorship, try the Taboo Topics section of the country-collection.)
  5. From Russia, the essay On the Moscow Metro and Being Gay is both a defiant call for full civil equality and a painfully searching examination of homophobia.

Although these readings come from three countries, free speech is currently endangered in many, many different parts of the world; students can find information on global censorship in the Context and Playlist tabs next to the stories.