Customer Reviews

Ways to Survive, Battles to Win: Iranian Women Exiles in the Netherlands and the United States

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For those of you interested in immigration policy, Ghorashi's book will prove a valuable resource for understanding how and why immigrants make a home for themselves in a new country. Her comparison of Dutch and America policies are enlightening. The first is a highly structured and regulated system and the second is more chaotic: a kind of sink or swim policy. Ghorashi's analysis of her selected group: Iranian women leftists, reveals the surprising success of the sink or swim policy. Who would have guessed?

On a personal level, I learned so much about my own immigrant relatives from reading the stories and analysis in Ghorashi's book. The insight into the ways in which immigrants create and define "home" and "homeland" helped me better understand my grandparent's relationship to America. I remember how they used to describe Springfield, Illinois as an Eden. As a teen, this confused me, since I found the city incredibly dull. One woman in Ghorashi's book echoes this sentiment in her description of L.A. as paradise. The point is, I have come to understand, that paradise is where one feels safe and at home.

What amazed me were the similarities between the experiences of the women Ghorashi studies and the women I grew up with. The fact that more than 80 years separates their immigrations does not seem to matter. Both groups fled countries that had become hostile to them. Both made new homes for themselves in new countries. Both found ways to survive.

Through the analysis and the women's stories (told in their own words), I learned so much about what it feels like to fight for change - as these women did when they fought against the Shah's regime - experience disappointment at the betrayal of your ideals - and make a new home. Despite the fact that this book focuses on a narrow group of women, there are general lessons about activism, immigration, and survival.

Two thumbs up! (That's all I have.)

What amazed me most about this book is the insight it gave me into my own grandparents and great-grandparents who, like the women interviewed in Ghorashi's book, fled countries that had become hostile and dangerous for them. Some of the stories they told me about their own experiences immigrating to America were echoed by the women in this book. More than 80 years separates my relatives and the women here, but the experiences remain similar.

In addition, I found the book fascinating because of its look at people in the grips of revolutionary change. Wow! Their experiences with the revolution in Iran, the great hope they had for their country, and the ways in which those hopes were betrayed make for fascinating reading.

For people interested in immigration policy, the comparison of the women's experiences in the US and the Netherlands is really insightful. It makes me proud of America's dysfunctional system. I never thought I would say that.

I recommend this book.