Seeing stories in the newspaper of struggle and oppression in the Middle East is usually no special part of our everyday lives, but after reading the stories of young women, just like you and me, who happened to be born there instead of here, the news plays on new emotions for me. This week, I’ll profile two striking memoirs by Iranian women that tell stories of struggling toward modernity in a tangled web of ancient tradition. Imagine being searched in a private room before you entered your university each day. Imagine having your fingernails checked for proper length and your purse checked for hidden makeup. In 1995, this was the life of college women in Tehran, Iran, as shown in Azar Nafisi’s Reading Lolita in Tehran. Fast forward eleven years, and conditions haven’t improved much. In Haleh Esfandiari’s My Prison, My Home, the 67-year-old shares the story of her captivity in Iran in 2006. Both memoirs relay the history of Iran since the Iranian Revolution in 1979, focusing especially on the plight of women during this time. For young women, like us HC-ers, these memoirs are relatable, educational and eye opening. Although the stories are of oppression and control, they are oddly inspiring in their subjects’ show of determination throughout.
Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi This is a memoir we can all relate to, since its subjects are college women. We see them both inside and outside of their university environment, as they strive to learn and advance their positions in society. The story is about Azar Nafisi’s choice to resign as a professor at an Iranian University. After she resigns, she decides to start a private class with seven of her most dedicated female students. She teaches them literature every Thursday morning for two years in her home. As they remove their veils and chadors that are required by law, Nafisi witnesses a transformation in each girl’s personality. While they struggle with their personal identities under an oppressive regime, they learn to relate texts such as Lolita to their own lives as they uncover the power of literature. Threaded throughout the memoir is the history of Iran and Nafisi’s personal struggles. By sharing pieces of her life in America before returning to Iran to teach, Nafisi starkly contrasts the two cultures and the rights of women in each. Not only does she share the stories of her private female class, but she also highlights some of the books taught in her university classes and the struggles she encountered while teaching them. The views of the students on Westernization are sometimes baffling from an American viewpoint. After reading about students referring to America as Great Satan, I was shaking my head in misunderstanding. After reading on and becoming engulfed in the history of the country and its ongoing battle between Westernization and Islam traditions, I understood the students.
My Prison, My Home by Haleh Esfandiari This memoir tracks the journey of an Iranian-American woman as she is imprisoned in her country of birth. Just think about the amount of self-discipline it takes us to stay off of Facebook long enough to write a paper. After reading about Esfandiari’s determination and self-discipline in prison, our Facebook struggles make us feel guilty in comparison. While visiting her mother in 2006 in Tehran, the place of her birth, Esfandiari was robbed on the highway as she was being driven to the airport by her usual driver late at night. Thinking it was an ordinary robbery, she didn’t worry much about her situation and focused instead on getting new passports and going home to America. In the blink of an eye, Esfandiari found herself in the hands of the Intelligence Ministry, Iran’s most powerful organization. Esfandiari was interrogated ruthlessly for months before her case came to a halt. After hearing nothing for 3 more months, she is arrested and sent to the notorious Evin Prison in Tehran. Through the interrogations, it was revealed to Esfandiari that she was being accused of plotting to overthrow the Iranian regime through her work at the Wilson Center in Washington D.C. The robbery was staged by the Intelligence Ministry and she was refused the right to a lawyer or family visits in Evin Prison. The memoir outlines her journey into captivity, the four-month captivity, and her release in August of 2007. Even while being interrogated, Esfandiari maintained composure, knowing full well that if she gave into her emotions, she had no chance of surviving in the horrible conditions of the prison. She forced thoughts of her family out of her head and spent hours carefully formulating responses to her interrogators’ questions so she wouldn’t slip up. Even under the most horrible of conditions though, Esfandiari found friends in the female prison guards and was welcomed everywhere she traveled after her release. Oddly, the memoir strengthens faith in human compassion and connections. It provides insight into the long history of American-Iranian relations and Iran’s struggle as a country to establish a stable and just government. The story of Esfandiari’s capture and detainment kept me turning the pages. Although a lot of history was packed into this short memoir, she keeps it relevant and concise. It was clear that every word was chosen with care in order to focus on her experience as a prisoner in her own home.
