Customer Reviews

Camelia: Save Yourself by Telling the Truth - A Memoir of Iran

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"Camelia" is the vivid, moving, and candid memoir of Camelia Entekhabi-fard, a young Iranian journalist intimately familiar with the social and political turmoil of Iran under the Islamic Republic. Ms Entekhabi-fard's story takes us from her childhood and adolescence, to her career as a journalist and active participant in the Iranian reform movement, through encounters with famous and infamous personalities, to her imprisonment, release, and exile. Her keen observations and deep sympathy illuminate the complex cultural and political problems of Iran, particularly its young women, and bring to life some of the key events of the past thirty years. But what makes "Camelia" stand out among contemporary Middle East memoirs is Ms Entekhabi-fard's brutal honesty, particularly towards the moral dilemmas and personal choices she made in her struggle to succeed and survive. Her fierce candor will undoubtedly shock some readers, but it makes "Camelia" a refreshingly frank, lively, and moving memoir.

Camelia was six years old when the Shah of Iran was overthrown in her country: her family chose to stay in Tehran and saw two decades of violent change which affected their family. CAMELIA is for any who would understand the culture and politics of Iran: its autobiography recounts the author's life in the country, where she was a nationally celebrated poet as a teen, one of the youngest reformist journalists in Tehran by eighteen, and imprisoned eight years later. Her relationship with brutal interrogators, her ultimate survival and her struggle coping with freedom makes for a haunting document of repression which is a top pick for any general-interest or college-level collection strong in Middle East culture and history.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

I searched a lot for this book. It was interesting for me because I am from Iran.

However; although this book is in English, it is not suitable for people who do not know Farsi. All of a sudden, a strange persian phrase comes out and looking it up in the glossary sucks.

I wish I could find the original persian version which has never been published.

"Camelia Save Yourself by Telling the Truth: A Memoir of Iran" by Camelia Entekhabifard (2007). The Iranian author recounts how as a `liberal' journalist she was imprisoned in 1998 by the pro-ayatollah mullahs for her expose of Islamist-government misdeeds. To survive, she took one of her male guards as her sigheh (temporary marriage)`lover'. The author recounts how her parents bemoaned the ousting of the `liberal' Shah (compared to the `conservative mullah clerics anyway) in 1979, and how women tried to cope with the `cover and conceal'-dress edicts of the mullahs. I learned many new `tidbits' about 1980s Iranian lifestyles, and wish the author would have written more. A very worthwhile book for learning about the mullahs' oppression of Iranian women and dissenting newsmedia.

I could feel her pain and bewilderment. A must read for everyone who takes liberty for granted.

I knew this lady back home ,the only ambiyious she had was to get out of iran ,and she did not care how .most of her writings are nothing new ,but again average americans like to read this self glorifiying fantasy .she was not known for her self piety ,and was not a poet at the age of 16 ,she used to teach bally dncing at her home ,and had a terrible reputation for using her .....to get to different places .