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Editorial Review Product Description
In a direct, frank, and intimate exploration of Iranian literature and society, scholar, teacher, and poet Fatemeh Keshavarz challenges popular perceptions of Iran as a society bereft of vitality and joy. Her fresh perspective on present day Iran provides a rare insight into this rich but virtually unknown culture alive with artistic expression. Keshavarz introduces readers to two modern Iranian women writers whose strong and articulate voices belie the stereotypical perception of Iranian women as voiceless victims in a country of villains. She follows with a lively critique of the best-selling Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books, which epitomizes what Keshavarz calls the "New Orientalist narrative"—marred by stereotype and prejudice more often tied to current geopolitical conflicts than to an understanding of Iran. Blending in firsthand glimpses of her own life—from childhood memories in 1960s Shiraz to her present life as a professor in America—Keshavarz paints a portrait of Iran depicting both cultural depth and intellectual complexity. With a scholar's expertise and a poet's hand, she helps amplify the powerful voices of contemporary Iranians and leads readers toward a deeper understanding of the country's past and present. ... Read more Customer Reviews (14) 
finally, an Iranian writer that honors the tradition she came from!
all these reviews condemning the author for political reasons are just that: political - all Keshavarz does is in the book is say, hey, there is vast treasury of Persian Literature (which Nafisi apparently missed out on growing up in an English boarding school), and how about drawing from those roots.... and all we have to do is look at the women of Iran today to see that "reading lolita in tehran" is just a small slice of society and not an accurate picture...Thank you Ms. Keshavarz!
No Excuses for Mullahs!
There is nothing, absolutely nothing, good about this Fascist regime in Iran. This regime has been one of the biggest catastrophe that has happend to this beautiful and rich in culture country. Having said that, I refused to support any auther who would portray any thing other than these facts about the so called "Islamic Republic Of Iran".
How could any one defend the Mullahs of Iran?
This diatribe is supposed to be a book countering the works of people like Azar Nafisi (author of reading lolita in Tehran). Well, this book is sadly a disappointing one. The author, probably on the payroll of the Mullahs, has set out to debunk the people like Nafisi and others who have written about the horrible lives of women and dissidents under the Mullahs. This book is just a really terrible case of defending a tyranny in Iran. How could any one defend such a regime is beyond me. Shameless authors like Keshavarz take it upon themselves to speak for the vast majority of us, Iranians, who hate her ilk and her beloved Islamic Republic. This book is nothing but a horrible defense of an Islamist regime. Do not waste your money on it.
What book did she read?
I don't understand how the author draws some of her conclusions about RLT.In my copy of RLT, I read an account of a beautiful culture that had been hushed by repressive regimes, be it the Shah's or the Imams'.I never found RLT dismissive of Iran's rich culture; in fact, it inspired me to learn more about it.The author of Jasmine and Stars uses selective quotes to support stilted arguments.Furthermore, I have to admire RLT's author for choosing to remain in Iran, unlike Ms. Jasmine, who now teaches in St. Louis.Who has the greater claim to observe Iranian culture over the past 30 years?The one who had experienced it, I would say.I am sure Ms. Jasmine is a fine human,but her book comes off as an attempt to ride the coattails of another's fame.
How
After finishing this book I felt that I had had an education and brief introduction into modern Persian literature which is actually quite vast; which is something the "new orientalists" who write books like "Reading Lolita in Tehran" are happy to deny the existence of in order to pander to the self serving preconceptions held by the West about the paucity of great writing and novels in an Islamic country.
I was so intrigued by learning from Fatemeh Keshavarz's book about contemporary authors like Moniru Ravanipur, Shahryar Mandanipur, Simin Daneshvar and Shahnush Parsipour that I started to research modern Persian authors and at last count I have found over 46 considered great by their countrymen and many internationally.
I have come to the conclusion that the only thing missing from contemporary Iranian literature is enough translations into English and other European languages to educate the Western world that Iran is in a literary renaissance rather than a Dark Age. Yes many Iranian writers have served time in jail under the Qajars, under the Pahlavis and under the IRI for writing things critical of the regimes but nothing can stop the writers and the film makers who like water encountering an obstruction flow under it, around it, over it, through it or when split up into a thousand rivulets regroup where ever they find the deepest hole.
As we concluded in my interview with film maker, Parvin Ansary a few years ago, great literary and artistic periods of creativity do not come from times of prosperity and comfort but rather fluorish in times of chaos and suffering like Italian cinema after World War II when Italy was broken before it became too affluent to be driven to creativity, like the earlier Italian Renaissance which people from today's perspective forget was a time of struggle, intrigue, internecine wars and chaos...it is from a struggle for identity, a unique identity both on an individual basis and as a society and nation that great works of art are born...it is not from micmicry of the West.
Iran has made contributions to world literature from the second millenium BC, all the way to the present day and continues to do so. We have Ferdowsi,Al Ghazali, Nizami, Attar, Rumi, Khayyam and many others from the past but we also have Forough Farrokhzad,Akhavan Sales,
M.A. Jamalzadeh, Sadeg Hedayat, Bozorg Alavi, Beh' Azin, Sadeg Chubak, Ebrahim Golestan, Iradj Pezeshkhzad, Jalal Mir-Sadegi, Gholan Horayu Nazari, Esma'il Fasih, Gholam Hosayn Sa'edi, Nader Ebrahimi, Bahram Sadegi, Hushang Golshiri, Fereydun Tonokaboni, Goli Taruggi, Mahsid Amir-Shahi, Mahmud Dowlatabadi, Nasim Khaksar, Amin Faqiri, Hushang Ashurzadeh, Farahnaz Abassi,Taghi Modarresi, Ali-Mohammad Afghani, Abbas Marufi, Hormoz Shahdadi, Reza Baraheni,Ghazaleh Alizadeh,Fereshteh Saari,Farideh Farjam...the list goes on and on and contemporary Persian literature is huge and still growing right now as we speak... to see photos of these writers, whom I emphasize are both genders, go to:
[...]
The amazing thing to me is that a person like the author of Reading Lolita In Tehran, could be satisfied ignoring her own country's stellar literary inundation of talent taking advantage of the relative ignorance of the West about Persian writing, to suggest that the novel doesn't exit in the IRI, what Keshavarz refers to as a continuation of the Bakhtinian perception that the written form of a novel is of Western origin, to focus on a few Western authors like Fitzgerald, James, Austen and Nabakov,not even contemporary anymore
, and by inference and omission, present her own countrymen as if they are void of writers on issues of birth, death, puberty, virginity, adolescence, women's rights, marriage, divorce, love, crime, rape,anger, sorrow, jealousy,guilt, ambition, greed, spirituality and the whole array of human experience and emotion...but rather would have us believing they only write religious doctrines...and argue over how many angels can sit on the head of a pin...or whether men can have sex with chickens as long as they don't eat them for a week after...at one of her lectures which I attended she suggested that trying to reason with the IRI was like playing chess with a monkey who at a certain point grabs your queen and swallows it. How very convenient to over simplify, dehumanize and demonize an entire nation of 70 million people 70 % of whom are under age 30. You have to question the motives of any of these "new orientalist" writers who pick the worst moment in time or a particular slice of society and freeze the shot for eternity to represent that people. Any people can be skewed in this manner. If we froze the "Reign of Terror" after the French Revolution and presented it as the epitome of France...what would people think of France? If we dwell on the prison population per capita and crime rates and statistics in the USA, we would come to the conclusion that there is no freedom, that there is anarchy and people live in constant fear of being victims of random crime. This is propaganda not literature.
I am forever grateful to Fatemeh Keshavarz for lifting a veil from my eyes with her book. I am now on a rampage to read every modern Persian writer I can find in translation especially the ones still living.
Brian H. Appleton
aka
Rasool Aryadust
www.zirzameen.com
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