Amnesty International Toronto Reel Awareness Film Festival

Three women, one from China, one from Cuba and one from Iran have something in common. They are world-famous for speaking out against the dictatorships of their countries in their blogs, an act that requires incredible courage.

You can watch their stories in Forbidden Voices, one of several documentaries featured in Amnesty International Toronto's Reel Awareness film festival this year.

The festival is from November 14-17. To read about the other documentaries playing and event details, visit the Reel Awareness website.

Here is more information about the women featured in the film:

Zeng Jinyan - Unfortunately, I couldn't find an English translation of her blog, but here is a great interview with her. She shares her insight on gender inequality in China, her activism for HIV/AIDS, her education in human rights advocacy, her husband, a dissident in police custody, the prevalence of human rights violations in China and much more.

Generation Y: An English translation of Yoani Sánchez of Cuba's blog - I've only read a few of her most recent posts so far, but Yoani writes about the terrible wages in Cuba, the lack of access or inadequate access to basic things and the impact of this.

I also couldn't find an English version of Farnaz Seifi's blog, but here is a profile of her in the Forbidden Voices website. Farnaz writes about the oppression of Iranian women and the threats she faced because she spoke out.