Hana : The audacity to be free

'The constant search for autonomy and freedom is in every woman.'Hana Assafiri is a much-loved and revered social activist and radical entrepreneur. Through the medium of food and dining in her renowned Moroccan Soup Bar, she has worked tirelessly to rectify the systemic and social barriers to women's empowerment. Hana's memoir follows her childhood between Lebanon and Australia, her marriage, her attempts to leave, and her ensuing career in women's services. In 1998, she opened the Moroccan Soup Bar, which would quickly become an iconic Melbourne institution-founded on the radical notion that marginalised women, together in the kitchen, can effect social change.

‘The constant search for autonomy and freedom is in every woman.’

Hana Assafiri is a much-loved and revered social activist and radical entrepreneur. Through the medium of food and dining in her renowned Moroccan Soup Bar, she has worked tirelessly for women’s empowerment. In her memoir HANA: The Audacity to be Free, she turns her gaze on herself to write a brutally honest account of her own personal story. Hana writes of her childhood between war-torn Lebanon and Australia, her attempts to leave a marriage she had no say in, and reinventing herself and her life at the tender age of twenty. In 1998, on a whim, she opened the Moroccan Soup Bar, which would quickly become an iconic Melbourne institution. Founded on the radical notion that marginalized women, together in the kitchen, can effect social change, the Soup Bar has changed thousands of women’s lives.
ANA: The Audacity to be Free is a searingly personal memoir, a call to arms to break free from the chains of conformity, and an invitation to readers to join her mission of empowerment, inspiration, and progress.