MALI-BOOKS ON IRAN
Discover essential books on Iran in this curated MALI-BOOKS list, featuring memoirs, history, and fiction. Explore standout titles like Reading Lolita in Tehran, All the Shah's Men, and Lipstick Jihad for deep insights into Iranian culture, revolution, and identity.
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Reading Lolita in Tehran
by Azar Nafisi
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER âą We all have dreamsâthings we fantasize about doing and generally never get around to. This is the story of Azar Nafisiâs dream and of the nightmare that made it come true. For two years before she left Iran in 1997, Nafisi gathered seven young women at her house every Thursday morning to read and discuss forbidden works of Western literature. They were all former students whom she had taught at university. Some came from conservative and religious families, others were progressive and secular; several had spent time in jail. They were shy and uncomfortable at first, unaccustomed to being asked to speak their minds, but soon they began to open up and to speak more freely, not only about the novels they were reading but also about themselves, their dreams and disappointments. Their stories intertwined with those they were readingâPride and Prejudice, Washington Square, Daisy Miller and Lolitaâtheir Lolita, as they imagined her in Tehran. Nafisiâs account flashes back to the early days of the revolution, when she first started teaching at the University of Tehran amid the swirl of protests and demonstrations. In those frenetic days, the students took control of the university, expelled faculty members and purged the curriculum. When a radical Islamist in Nafisiâs class questioned her decision to teach The Great Gatsby, which he saw as an immoral work that preached falsehoods of âthe Great Satan,â she decided to let him put Gatsby on trial and stood as the sole witness for the defense. Azar Nafisiâs luminous tale offers a fascinating portrait of the Iran-Iraq war viewed from Tehran and gives us a rare glimpse, from the inside, of womenâs lives in revolutionary Iran. It is a work of great passion and poetic beauty, written with a startlingly original voice. Praise for Reading Lolita in Tehran âAnyone who has ever belonged to a book group must read this book. Azar Nafisi takes us into the vivid lives of eight women who must meet in secret to explore the forbidden fiction of the West. It is at once a celebration of the power of the novel and a cry of outrage at the reality in which these women are trapped. The ayatollahs donâ t know it, but Nafisi is one of the heroes of the Islamic Republic.ââGeraldine Brooks, author of Nine Parts of Desire
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All the Shah's Men
by Stephen Kinzer
This is the first full-length account of the CIA's coup d'etat in Iran in 1953âa covert operation whose consequences are still with us today. Written by a noted New York Times journalist, this book is based on documents about the coup (including some lengthy internal CIA reports) that have now been declassified. Stephen Kinzer's compelling narrative is at once a vital piece of history, a cautionary tale, and a real-life espionage thriller.
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Journey from the Land of No
by Roya Hakakian
An emotional, evocative coming-of-age story about one deeply intelligent and perceptive girlâs attempt to find her own voice in prerevolutionary Iran âAn immensely moving, extraordinarily eloquent, and passionate memoir.ââHarold Bloom Roya Hakakian was twelve years old in 1979 when the revolution swept through Tehran. The daughter of an esteemed poet, she grew up in a household that hummed with intellectual life. Family gatherings were punctuated by witty, satirical exchanges and spontaneous recitations of poetry. But the Hakakians were also part of the very small Jewish population in Iran who witnessed the iron fist of the Islamic fundamentalists increasingly tightening its grip. It is with the innocent confusion of youth that Roya describes her discovery of a swastikaââa plus sign gone awry, a dark reptile with four hungry clawsââpainted on the wall near her home. As a schoolgirl she watched as friends accused of reading blasphemous books were escorted from class by Islamic Society guards, never to return. Only much later did Roya learn that she was spared a similar fate because her teacher admired her writing. Hakakian relates in the most poignant, and at times painful, ways what life was like for women after the country fell into the hands of Islamic fundamentalists who had declared an insidious war against them, but we see it all through the eyes of a strong, youthful optimist who somehow came up in the world believing that she was different, knowing she was special. A wonderfully evocative story, Journey from the Land of No reveals an Iran most readers have not encountered and re-creates a time and place dominated by religious fanaticism, violence, and fear with an open heart.
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Women Without Men
by ShahrnĆ«sh PÄrsÄ«ÊčpĆ«r
A modern literary masterpiece, Women Without Men creates an evocative and powerfully drawn allegory of life in contemporary Iran. With a tone that is as stark and bold, yet magical, as its elegantly drawn settings and characters, internationally acclaimed writer Shahrnush Parsipur follows the interwoven destinies of five women -- including a prostitute, a wealthy middle-aged housewife, and a schoolteacher -- as they arrive, by many different paths, to live in a garden on the outskirts of Tehran. Reminiscent of a wry fable and drawing on elements of Islamic mysticism and recent Iranian history, Women Without Men depicts women escaping the narrow precincts of family and society -- only to face daunting new challenges. Shortly after the novel's 1989 publication, Parsipur was arrested and jailed for her frank and defiant portrayal of women's sexuality. Though still banned in Iran, this national best-seller was eventually translated into several languages, delighting new readers with the witty and subversive work of a brilliant Persian writer. Book jacket.
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The Blindfold Horse
by Shusha Guppy
In an eloquent memoir, the author recreates the lost world of her childhood--a Persia delicately balanced between traditional Islamic life and the transforming forces of westernization--before the oil boom and the eventual overthrow of the Shah. Reprint.
