Persian Girls

Persian Girls PDF Author: Nahid Rachlin
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 1101007702
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 308

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Book Description
For many years, heartache prevented Nahid Rachlin from turning her sharp novelist's eye inward: to tell the story of how her own life diverged from that of her closest confidante and beloved sister, Pari. Growing up in Iran, both refused to accept traditional Muslim mores, and dreamed of careers in literature and on the stage. Their lives changed abruptly when Pari was coerced by their father into marrying a wealthy and cruel suitor. Nahid narrowly avoided a similar fate, and instead negotiated with him to pursue her studies in America. When Nahid received the unsettling and mysterious news that Pari had died after falling down a flight of stairs, she traveled back to Iran--now under the Islamic regime--to find out what happened to her truest friend, confront her past, and evaluate what the future holds for the heartbroken in a tale of crushing sorrow, sisterhood, and ultimately, hope.

Persian Girls

Persian Girls PDF Author: Nahid Rachlin
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 1101007702
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 308

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Book Description
For many years, heartache prevented Nahid Rachlin from turning her sharp novelist's eye inward: to tell the story of how her own life diverged from that of her closest confidante and beloved sister, Pari. Growing up in Iran, both refused to accept traditional Muslim mores, and dreamed of careers in literature and on the stage. Their lives changed abruptly when Pari was coerced by their father into marrying a wealthy and cruel suitor. Nahid narrowly avoided a similar fate, and instead negotiated with him to pursue her studies in America. When Nahid received the unsettling and mysterious news that Pari had died after falling down a flight of stairs, she traveled back to Iran--now under the Islamic regime--to find out what happened to her truest friend, confront her past, and evaluate what the future holds for the heartbroken in a tale of crushing sorrow, sisterhood, and ultimately, hope.

My Persian Girl

My Persian Girl PDF Author: Jonathan Rush
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781781763612
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 208

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Book Description
Under its placid surface in 1978, Iran was a simmering sea of religious animosity and social resentment, which was shortly to boil over into the world's first Islamic revolution: the overthrow of the country's autocratic ruler, the Shah; and his replacement with a charismatic religious leader, Ayatollah Khomeni. My Persian Girl is an account of the impact the violent turmoil of the 1979 Iranian revolution has on three people: Shahnaz, a young Iranian woman; her husband Raman, who is an ambitious officer in Iran's secret police; and a naive young Englishman, James Harding. All these characters must make difficult decisions as Iran gradually slides towards the revolution, which threatens their personal safety. My Persian Girl is more than a love story set within a political thriller - it is a story of courage and hope in the face of momentous events, which have global resonance today.

A Symphony of Life

A Symphony of Life PDF Author: Dr. Simin Redjali
Publisher: Xlibris Corporation
ISBN: 1479765341
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 585

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Book Description
A Symphony of Life Triumph of Education over Adversity A Journey of a Persian - American Woman Through War, Revolution, Love, and Freedom The story of Dr. Redjali, a well known public figure in Iran in the mid-twentieth century, begins in Iran (Persia) during the time of Iran's westernization and modernization spearheaded by Reza Shah Pahlavi at the beginning of the 20th century and follows the social, historical, political turmoil, and educational events of the past seventy years in Iran, in Europe and the United States. Like a symphony, this book is composed of four movements. Through these movements, the author weaves the notes of her life into melodies of social and historical changes, upheavals, wars, revolutions and peace. She traces her own transition from being part of Iran's ruling class to her job-seeking struggles in the United States. This provides the reader, through the author's firsthand experience with many of the great events of the 20th century, a personal account of Iran's contemporary history and politics, education, along with an eye-witness account of the United States civil rights movement, the women's rights struggle, other important issues related to psychology and mental health, and personal issues such as surviving cancer in the United States. Her story encompasses shifts in the tempos and melodies of life, along with a leitmotiv of love of family, individual freedom, and unwavering hope for humanity. The book illustrates the personal approach the author has adopted throughout her life in coping with and overcoming every adversity through using the power of education. It's also a testament to a woman's ability to balance all the facets of her life-. career demands, family responsibilities, emotional needs, and the quest to help others. This book with historical pictures uniquely covers the period between the rise and the fall of the Pahlavi dynasty, the rise of the Islamic Republic of Iran, and the author's personal life in Europe and the United States. It is supported by extensive research, and expresses a great hope that the longstanding cultural misunderstanding and miscommunication between Iran and the West will soon be replaced with a mutual respect which celebrates the power of individual freedom and democracy.

Salaam, Love

Salaam, Love PDF Author: Ayesha Mattu
Publisher: Beacon Press
ISBN: 0807079758
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 249

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Book Description
From the editors of the groundbreaking anthology Love, InshAllah comes a provocative new exploration of the most intimate parts of Muslim men’s lives Muslim men are stereotyped as either oversexed Casanovas willing to die for seventy-two virgins in heaven or controlling, big-bearded husbands ready to rampage at the hint of dishonor. The truth is, there are millions of Muslim men trying to figure out the complicated terrain of love, sex, and relationships just like any other American man. In Salaam, Love, Ayesha Mattu and Nura Maznavi provide a space for American Muslim men to speak openly about their romantic lives, offering frank, funny, and insightful glimpses into their hearts—and bedrooms. The twenty-two writers come from a broad spectrum of ethnic, racial, and religious perspectives—including orthodox, cultural, and secular Muslims—reflecting the strength and diversity of their faith community and of America. By raising their voices to share stories of love and heartbreak, loyalty and betrayal, intimacy and insecurity, these Muslim men are leading the way for all men to recognize that being open and honest about their feelings is not only okay—it’s intimately connected to their lives and critical to their happiness and well-being.

Ghazal Games

Ghazal Games PDF Author: Roger Sedarat
Publisher: Ohio University Press
ISBN: 0821443755
Category : Poetry
Languages : en
Pages : 83

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Book Description
As an Iranian American poet, Roger Sedarat fuses Western and Eastern traditions to reinvent the classicalPersian form of the ghazal. For its humor as well as its spirituality, the poems in this collection can perhapsbest be described as “Wallace Stevens meets Rumi.” Perhaps most striking is the poet’s use of the ancient ghazal form in the tradition of the classical masters like Hafez and Rumi to politically challenge the Islamic Republic of Iran’s continual crackdown on protesters. Not since the late Agha Shahid Ali has a poet translated the letter as well as the spirit of this form into English, using musicality and inventive rhyme to extend the reach of the ghazal in a new language and tradition.

Iranian Diaspora Identities

Iranian Diaspora Identities PDF Author: Ziba Shirazi
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 0761871713
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 207

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Book Description
Iranian Diaspora Identities: Stories and Songs combines oral history, storytelling, theories of communication, and performance studies into a unique study of an immigrant community. This book is the result of collaborative work between two Iranian-American immigrants, one a musician and artist and the other a professor. Using ethnographic, dramatistic, and oral history approaches, Ziba Shirazi gathered these stories of diaspora journeys of Iranians living in California and Toronto in the aftermath of the Islamic Revolution of 1979. The editors transcribed these stories and developed them into short performance pieces that include lyrics and songs and were performed in the United States and Canada to thousands of people in theater venues and libraries. These stories constitute a unique archive of the history of contemporary Iranian diaspora experiences. They are autobiographic vignettes that have helped constitute an artistic vision of Iranian exiles’ own sense of community and their migratory experiences that inform the transformations they experienced in family, gender, and spiritual beliefs. In addition to providing an archive of experiences, the book uses social drama and storytelling to advocate for a new methodology for documenting Iranian diaspora accounts. It constitutes a new contribution to the existing literature on Iranian diaspora and furthers an exciting contribution to scholarship in qualitative research in communication studies.

The Boarding School Girls

The Boarding School Girls PDF Author: Soosan Latham
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351745662
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 208

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Book Description
They were children. Put on a train in a strange land, they waved goodbye to a parent as they headed to an educational institution that, unbeknownst to them, was to become their new home. Separated from their loving families, they strived to meet the expectations of the grownups and, in some cases, to rebel against them. Now, independent women, compassionate mothers, and astute professionals, they look back on their youth in the 1960’s and 1970’s to make sense of why they were sent away, and to give meaning to the sources that have sustained them over the years. Ex-boarders themselves, Latham and Ferdows provide vivid and emotionally embodied narratives of everyday lives of The Boarding School Girls. This unique collection of stories explores key issues of identity and lifespan development to seek understanding of the influence of national, religious and family culture on development within two conflicting sets of cultural values. Combining unique qualitative data with illuminating tales of resilience and accomplishment in what is likely to simultaneously inform and inspire readers with feelings of joy and sadness, love and hate, abandonment and hope, but mainly trust and forgiveness. The stories of eleven ‘little rich’ Persian girls are a nostalgic reminder of their past cross-cultural ordeals, a pragmatic perspective on psychological implications of boarding school education in England, and a celebration of the possibilities of the future. The Boarding School Girls is valuable reading for students in cultural, developmental and educational psychology and the humanities, as well as clinical psychologists and educators looking at the impact of boarding school on adolescent development.

Rethinking Gender, Ethnicity and Religion in Iran

Rethinking Gender, Ethnicity and Religion in Iran PDF Author: Azadeh Kian
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 0755650271
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 281

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Book Description
Covering the Pahlavi modern nation-state as well as the Islamic regime, this book examines the crucial shifts that affected Sunnite and subaltern women once Shi'ism became the state religion after the Iranian Revolution. Focusing on women in the Baluchistan and Golestan provinces of Iran, Azadeh Kian analyses and explores issues of cultural racialization, ethno-centrism, Shi'a centrism, and patriarchal and chauvinistic ideologies in Iranian society propagated by the state and sustained by its policies. Based on quantitative and qualitative surveys taken throughout Iran, comprised of over 7,000 married women and 100 interviews with a sample of Sunnite and subaltern Persian women, Kian reveals how social hierarchy and power relations based on gender, class, ethnicity and religion operate. She argues that women have been at the heart of the process of national and ethnic re-construction as women, as potential mothers, are expected to reproduce national and ethnic boundaries. Kian argues that by examining the family institution as a site of power, analysing family dynamics as well as women's everyday lives, the politics of ordinary Iranians and the relationship between state and society can be better understood. Kian argues that the time is ripe to achieve a non-hegemonic definition of Iranian national identity, through acknowledgement of gender, class, ethnic, and religious diversity and plurality of experiences of oppression and injustice.

The Devil Drives

The Devil Drives PDF Author: Fawn McKay Brodie
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 9780393301663
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 418

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Book Description
"Brilliant. . . . [Brodie's] scholarship is wide and searching, and her understanding of Burton and his wife both deep and wide. She writes with clarity and zest. The result is a first class biography of an exceptional man."--J. H. Plumb, New York Times Book Review

Drowning in the Mainstream

Drowning in the Mainstream PDF Author: Nikoo Fells Nahall Nikoo Fells
Publisher: iUniverse
ISBN: 1450205542
Category : Juvenile Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 286

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Book Description
When Mona Karim is invited to join the most exclusive sorority on her college campus, she is convinced that her lifelong efforts to abandon her Iranian heritage and become part of the in-crowd have finally paid off. As a new member of the coveted Alpha Phi Omega sorority, she is quick to give her sister, Mya, and her best friend, Sadie, the cold shoulder and happily commit herself to the Cal Davis party scene, designer jeans, and a strict starvation diet. Although Mona s devotion is immediately rewarded with it-girl friends and a jam-packed social calendar, she quickly realizes that she may have signed up for more than she initially bargained for. When a life-altering event shakes her to her very core, Mona unexpectedly finds herself amidst a confusing internal struggle. Braving a back and forth tug of war between the true Mona and Mona, the sorority girl, she soon discovers that there may never be a clear winner. That just maybe the blood of both identities will pump through her veins forever.