Illegal Dating: A Journey into the Private life of Iran [Paperback]

Muhammad Tahir (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 23, 2006

Muhammad Tahir's Illegal Dating: A Journey into the Private Life of Iran recounts Tahir's stay in Iran to visit the Iranian youths he befriended in cyberspace. As he risks his life to meet his young friends face-to-face, Tahir learns how Iran's young people carve out a private life despite the controlling hand of Iran's oppressive Mullah regime.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Muhammad Tahir Born in 1976, and he holds an MA in Mass Communication and is currently enrolled for a PhD. A professional journalist, he has been working as Editor/Broadcaster in the Turkmen Service of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty since November 2002. He has previously served as Bureau Chief of the International Turkish News Agency (IHA) and International Correspondent for Turkish TV TGRT for South Asia (1999-2002). Currently serving as columnist of central Asia and Caucasus analyst and The Journal of Turkish weekly for Central Asia, Tahir is author of two books and also serves as analyst for Turkmenistan at the International Strategic Research Organization. He is fluent in Turkmen, English, Turkish, Persian, Pashtoo, Urdu, and Uzbek languages, and currently living in the Czech Republic.

Product Details

• Paperback: 226 pages
• Publisher: BookSurge Publishing (January 23, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1419621009
• ISBN-13: 978-1419621000
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.2 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,457,671 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An impressive story of an impressive journey to an impressive country, March 28, 2008

By 

Mariam "Kharrazi" (Germany) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Illegal Dating: A Journey into the Private life of Iran (Paperback)

Illegal Dating, A Journey Into The Private Life of Iran, well done Mr. Tahir, I loved this title as well as your book, a fascinating story of a fascinating journey into a fascinating country of Iran. You took me with you to my homeland and brought back with yourself. Although I haven't been to Iran since last 10 years, but by reading this book and story of your journey I refreshed my mind my spirit, especially the story of Friday night parties were amazing.
Although subject of this book sounded like that you will talk only about sexual relationship but it was not like that, for instance you talked about all sort of relationships, relationship of young people with politics, freedom of press, speech, religion, as well as cultural boundaries. But I liked your style, however one thing I couldn't understand is, from one aspect we know that Iranian young people, -who you described make up almost 70 percent of total population- hates the Islamic regime, but from other hand they sounded like they do not like western models either, I wanted to hear more about this subject, particularly the opinion of those who are passionate of supporting current regime.
The nuclear issue was really an interesting argument, the perspective of Iranian young people amazed me, from one hand I supported their idea to stand behind regime against western pressure, because I do not like if some one should dictate us what to do, but from hand I am sorry that Iranian regime uses this emotional feelings and patriotism of people to strengthen itself, which is bad. Any way thank you for touching this issue.
The other point which I would like to touch is the culture of temporary marriage in Iran. And I want to thank you, that your approach was balanced on this issue, because so far whatever I have read about this subject -written by western writers- are just ridicules, as they paints this issue like it's a general phenomena in the country- or in other words everybody is in this business. Therefore this western generalization caused lots of misperception among international community about our culture, in fact Iran has centuries old history which we are proud of.
Why not we should be proud of, look at your example, how you have been received by those people whom you knew only by cyber chat, they received you, they hosted you, they spared their time and energy for you, can anybody expect such an hospitality in west?
I wished I could go with you, as you have had different approaches to all objects and events, which people from Iran, including myself, may take as an ordinary, for example the type of engagement, the wedding culture, joint family system. I missed all of them and thank you very much for writing this book, and thank you very much for taking the mission to open up the Iranian society with it's all real values, which not only refreshed my brain but also helped me to judge things differently. And I hope it will also help all those, who knows nothing or little about Iran, I confidently say, that this book will tell you that Iran is not about only black turbaned Mullahs or women hidden behind black chador, but it's a country and a nation with rich and colorful history, you must go and taste it.

All the best
Mariam Kharrazi

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars I want my money back, November 22, 2007

By 

gdss95 - See all my reviews

This review is from: Illegal Dating: A Journey into the Private life of Iran (Paperback)

Don't be fooled by the catchy title. I was looking forward to reading this book, but I should have known better when I couldn't find any reputable endorsements on the back cover. Not only that, the book is published by some no-name, never-heard-of before outfit from God knows where. Then I read the book - too many grammatical errors to count, which I found distracting (was this book even proof read? It's that bad). Not only that, but there were contextual errors also; for example, on page 14 in the second to last paragraph, the writer introduces a female with a male name (it should have been "Selma", not "Mohsen"!). Then, in the last sentence of page 98, he states that Imam Reza is the ninth Shi'i Imam! Mr. Tahir, you really need to do your homework before you write a book. Imam Reza is the eighth Imam. Very unprofessional. I can't believe I wasted $15 on this book.

His narrative style is annoying; he constantly spoke as if he had just discovered some sociological insight when, in fact, scholars have already noted socio-cultural phenomena particular to Iran, i.e., anthropologist Roxanne Varzi, or world renown historian Nikki Keddie. Mr. Tahir doesn't even reference these experts in his book. His anecdotes do not provide any insight into the implications or effects of the very behavior he reports. He offers opinions that come across as condescending of the Iranian people. For instance, Mr. Tahir includes a chapter about the movie, "Not Without My daughter." He basically gave a summary of the movie and then offered some blustery comments. The whole book is one, big, polarizing disaster. This is probably because he spent just enough time in Iran (he doesn't indicate how much time he spent there) to collect anecdotal evidence so he could then market his experiences in this mess of a book. If I could, I'd give it zero stars.

So, if you are looking for an insightful, compelling, well-written book, save your money. I recommend Roxanne Varzi's "Warring Souls", Elaine Sciolino's "Persian Mirrors", or Azadeh Moaveni's "Lipstick Jihad"; these books are much more astute at understanding the persona of today's young Iranian adults.