The outpouring of anger and solidarity that swept India in the wake of the Delhi rape case is the culmination of a long, slow-boiling resistance to the victimization of women that stretches across the sub-continent. Among those at the front of this wave is the Tamil poet Salma, who, through her writing and by her own example, has shown how courage and creativity can triumph against a backward and often endemic misogyny.In this powerful, moving book, Salma and the acclaimed film maker Kim Longinotto come together to portray Salma's extraordinary life and the challenges of capturing it in a documentary film.When Salma, a young Muslim girl growing up in a South Indian village, was 13 years old, her family shut her away in a small, dark room for eight years, forbidding her to study and forcing her into marriage. After her wedding, her husband insisted she continue to stay indoors. All told, Salma was unable to venture outside for nearly two and a half decades. During that time, words became Salma's salvation. She began covertly composing poems on scraps of paper and, through an intricate system, was able to sneak them out of the house.The poems are direct and powerful, searing portrayals of the dreadful depredations Salma and countless women like her have to deal with on a daily basis. Eventually they reached the hands of a publisher in Chennai who put them into print. Against all odds, and in a direct challenge to the stultifying traditions of her village, Salma has gone on to become one of the most renowned Tamil poets and an influential political leader. Her story is vital reading (and viewing), not just because of the singularity of her own courage, but also because the immiseration of women that it enabled her to escape remains so widespread.These pages interleave Salma's story, told in her own words, with Longinotto's account of making her film, a brooding, meditative study that premiered at the Sundance and Berlin film festivals in the spring of 2013. The book also includes a selection of Salma's poems and is illustrated with stills from the film.