So I have been reading Iran Awakening on and off ever since the Iranian election took over the news. This has been quite a while. I wanted to read it because I felt like I didn’t know enough about Iran and the United States, and the revolution and everything. I thought it was fascinating, how she told about the changes in political power throughout her life. She talks about helping in the revolution, and how afterwards she was asked to wear a headscarf, how people told her Just wait! We want to deal with women’s rights but there are so many more important things to do first! Ugh, it was awful – since, of course, this never materialized. She writes about the Iran-Iraq war, her anger when so many of her friends left Iran for safer territory, the legal cases she undertook, and her time in prison with such vividness.
I didn’t finish it at first because it gave me really bad nightmares (men without faces put me in cars and asked me important questions in another language). I have only just finished Iran Awakening yesterday, and now I don’t know what to say about it. It was terribly upsetting, but I’m glad I read it. I have several other books about women in Iran, and they look grim too, and if I weren’t so interested I wouldn’t read them but I am VERY VERY interested. I just won’t read them before bed. Before bed maybe I will read my anthology of Persian literature. Yes! I got one from the library! An anthology of Persian literature, it’s going to be great!
Incidentally, this is an excellent, concise overview of Iran’s recent political history from the perspective of, you know, people. (And yes, I am here differentiating “people” from “politicians”. Sorry, politicians!) If you don’t know why Iran does not want to be America’s BFF, and you have been wondering, here’s why. I wouldn’t want to be our BFF either. Sheesh.
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