Behind The Veil (International, Political, & Economic History) (Perfect Paperback)

~ (Author)
Key Phrases: embassy takeover, United States, Ayatollah Khomeini, The First Journey (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review

Debra Johanyak, a young American wife with an Iranian husband, gives a moving account of her experiences in the early days of the Iranian revolution in 1979. She not only vividly recounts the fears that the hostage crisis ignited in her, but also fondly recalls the deep bonds she formed with her Iranian in-laws. Elegiac and informative, the work is essential reading for anyone interested in gaining a better understanding about Iran and its people. -- Guity Nashat, professor of Middle Eastern history, University of Illinois at Chicago

In Behind the Veil, Debra Johanyak weaves the personal with the historical in fascinating detail. Through her own story, a Midwestern woman married to an Iranian man and living in Iran during the hostage crisis, Johanyak provides the reader with sharp insights into similarities as well as differences between the two cultures. The memoir offers a thoughtful perspective on cultural chasms and the bridges we could build to conquer them. --Nahid Rachlin, author of Persian Girls, a memoir, and Jumping Over Fire, a novel

Product Description

Married to an Iranian, and mother of two young children, Debra Johanyak was a teaching assistant at Iran's Shiraz University when the American Embassy in Tehran was taken over by militants on November 4, 1979. Behind the Veil tells the story of a woman with dual citizenship who loves both the United States and Iran but must choose between them when the embassy takeover triggers an international and personal crisis.

Johanyak recounts the events of her life in Iran, drawing on her own journal and family letters, as well as public news sources. Against a background of increasing political and religious tensions, she gives the reader vivid pictures of the world she experienced there, in good times and bad--tribal customs in a village wedding, sandstorms, the warmth of the large Iranian family she married into, the threatening pressure of Islamic fundamentalists. Coming face to face with dramatic changes in Iran's government and society, Johanyak must also confront her own identity.

For anyone who has ever wanted to look behind the veil of media imagery and see life in Iran before and after the 1979 revolution, Debra Johanyak's book offers a clear, intimate, and unflinching view of a culture in conflict, as she comes to terms with her religious faith, political views, and feminist values. Behind the Veil chronicles a dangerous time in Iran and America's shared history, and brings us along on the spiritual and intellectual pilgrimage of one Midwestern woman Wnding her way in a volatile world.

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Product Details

• Perfect Paperback: 251 pages
• Publisher: University Of Akron Press (November 30, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1931968403
• ISBN-13: 978-1931968409
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #493,015 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Highly recommended for up-close and personal insight into Iran's dynamic character, March 6, 2007

By	Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

Written by Debra Johanyak, Behind the Veil: An American Woman's Memoir of the 1979 Iran Hostage Crisis is an outstanding personal testimony by a wife and mother with dual Iranian and American citizenship. Married to an Iranian man, she lived in Iran and taught English before and after the 1979 revolution, and watched the events of the American embassy hostage crisis with trepidation. Her husband's family embraced her warmly, yet the building pressure from Islamic fundamentalists placed heavy strain on her daily life and her hopes of staying. She also came to terms to her identity as a Christian in an Islamic country, and had to learn to balance acceptance of traditional customs with her own feminist values. Eventually, despite the support and good character of so many fellow individuals, she had to leave Iran due to threat of violence; Behind the Veil chronicles her physical and spiritual pilgrimage, her memories good and bad of the nation's people, and her insights into cultural and historical gulfs. Highly recommended for up-close and personal insight into Iran's dynamic character, as well as for the fascinating story of the author's search for her own path.

5.0 out of 5 stars A great look into life in Iran, September 20, 2007

By	Coppertop (Ohio) - See all my reviews

This is a definitely the book to read for a new look at Iran and the Irani people. The author is telling her story - she goes to Iran in the late 1970s as a young wife of an Iranian man she met and married at college in the US. This isn't the story of forced conversion or one that makes life in Iran look terrible. Rather the author finds she loves Iran for its people and culture, but she has problems adjusting. Her new family is very accepting of her - a foreign, non-Muslim bride and her husband never seems to fall into the Muslim sterotype of repressing women. Actually he pays so little attention to that and to politics, that is hard for her to get his take on anything and thus certain issues she might have avoided come to pass. She starts teaching English part-time and is at home with her two sons, part time. On their first stay, it is the medical situation that sends her running back to the US. In her first stay in Iran, she feels no pressure to take the veil, cover her head, etc. For her, it is an emergency surgery that freaks her out. Her husband eventually comes back to the States as well, and they manage to work out their differences and they go back to Iran about a year later. By this time, Iran has a new government - the Ayatollah has returned. At first, this seems to be much the same Iran, and she goes back to teaching and starts working on a graduate degree. But mounting tensions with the US, mounting religious preseuctions and then the hostage situation continues to make life difficult for her. She really fights the idea of the veil even though for her it would mean protection. Her husband's family is extremely supportive through all of this, although they must have found her resistance to the veil extremely strange. The veil had not been mandatory until the return of the Ayatollah and the issue was that the author could pass for Iranian and so her American identity was not always clear - making her look like she was flaunting the government, rather than simply following her own cultural norms. It is eventually the tensions and hostile attitudes that make her use the veil in public as protection that makes her finally insist on leaving Iran with her kids. Her husband does join her in the States, but they can't manage to make it work and they end up divorced this time. She hasn't been back to Iran since.

This really is an important book to read because it gives a human perspective to the Irani people. Her in-laws and the people she associates with are all people she finds connections with and enjoys. She always feels accepted by her husband's family for who she is and not expected to change. Yet the changing government of Iran and their anti-American attitudes made it hard on her. Her opinions had to be shielded for fear of retribution and even her graduate papers got her into trouble.

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars way to go, August 29, 2007

By	Neva Rowley "Neva" (Greatest Place, Earth) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I got it very quickly after the order. I am pleased with everything. The book looked good, brand new. I am very pleased.