Returning to Iran [Paperback]

Sima Nahan (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 11, 2009

This year marks the 30th anniversary of the revolution in Iran. This book is a collection of articles written over more than twenty of those years, from 1986 to 2008. The author's accounts of her travels, mostly to her native city of Tehran, reflect the complexities and contradictions that define Iranian life, culture, and politics. The articles depict the experience of the years since the revolution through the eyes of the people who have lived them. They offer glimpses into many facets of Iranian society: survivors of war and terror, women, dissent, secular intelligentsia, underground culture, and Iranians in the diaspora.

Product Details

• Paperback: 232 pages
• Publisher: Urtext Media (February 11, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0979057302
• ISBN-13: 978-0979057304
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.5 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,958,565 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Intelligent, personable insider's guide to the Iranian mind, August 19, 2009

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A Reader in Pennsylvania - See all my reviews

This review is from: Returning to Iran (Paperback)

If you would like to know how contemporary Iranians think and live, Returning to Iran is an excellent entrée. In this collection of well-written and compelling essays, Sima Nahan makes use of her successive trips to Tehran over the past quarter century to reflect on the history, culture, and customs of contemporary Iranians. Her wide-ranging subjects include a young taxi driver who supports Ahmadinejad, irrepressible Iranian women from all parts of the political spectrum, and two men of letters who cope in their own ways with being caught in the cross-fire of cultural upheaval. Ms. Nahan reflects on the importance of Hafez and Khayyam to Iranian culture, examines the rhetoric of right-wing publications, and touches on the symbolism of the color black and martyrdom in Iranian society. Couched in her intelligent and often irreverent voice, this book unobtrusively conveys a great deal of information; my overall impression was that of having stayed up many nights chatting with a particularly interesting and knowledgeable friend. With this collection of her essays, Sima Nahan has given us an insightful, enduring, and engaging portrait of the Iranian people.