In Southwestern Iran, roughly thirty-five miles outside of the city of Kerman, lies the small village of Kupayeh. In 1986, French-Iranian journalist Freidoune Sahebjam’s car unexpectedly stalled on the steep, narrow roads zigzagging along Kupayeh’s austere mountain ridges, stranding him in the wind-whipped village. Walking among the sand-dusted brick houses, Sahebjam is accosted by a desperate woman, Zahra, who feverishly relates a terrifying village conspiracy involving blackmail, misogyny, and murder. Zahra tells the journalist that she, as a woman in Iran, no longer has a voice and she pleads with him to “take her voice” and tell the world her story.
