By Azar Nafisi
Sunday, April 16, 2006
W hen he announced last week that Iran had enriched uranium, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said, "This is a very historic moment, and it's because of the Iranian people and their belief." It seemed like a response to U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who had made assurances that, "We do not have a problem with the Iranian people. We want the Iranian people to be free. Our problem is with the Iranian regime."
But the only way to know about a people is, as "To Kill a Mockingbird" reminds us, by wearing their shoes and walking around in them. So the books, music and other reference points that I have chosen to recommend are based not on the politics of the day but on the ways through which the Iranian people articulate and shape their experiences, namely through what goes by the name of culture. It is when they discover this "other Iran" -- enigmatic, humorous, self-critical and sensual -- that Americans will celebrate the differences that make each culture unique but also experience the shock of recognition, discovering how much they have in common with Iranians.
General information
"Encyclopedia Iranica." This compendium of Iran's history and culture is a work in progress by Columbia University's Center for Iranian Studies. More than half of the volumes are now complete.
The Iranian experience past and present
MEMOIRS I have chosen memoirs of wonderful Iranian women from two different perspectives and eras, one writing about her life before and the other about life after the Islamic Revolution: "The Blindfold Horse: Memories of a Persian Childhood," by Shusha Guppy, and the forthcoming "Iran Awakening: A Memoir of Revolution and Hope," by 2003 Nobel peace laureate Shirin Ebadi.
ARTICLES Roya Hakakian's "A Demonizing Call" in The Washington Post (Nov. 20, 2005). Also see Laura Secor's "Fugitives" in the New Yorker (Nov. 21, 2005) on Iranian youth.
WEB SITES www. TehranAvenue. com Marvelous insight from Iran into the experience of living there, especially from a young perspective.
www.fis-iran.org , from the Foundation for Iranian Studies, a mine of information on modern Iran, both scholarly and cultural.
www.abfiran.org , the site of the Abdorrahman Boroumand Foundation for the Promotion of Human Rights and Democracy in Iran. An amazing poetic tribute to the victims of the Republic.
FICTION I have chosen samples of fiction to show how different the Iranian people are from the political images of them in the news. These books celebrate the sanctity of the profane, the world of imagination and thought:
"My Uncle Napoleon," by Iraj Pezeshkzad
"Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood" and other graphic novels by Marjane Satrapi
"Strange Times, My Dear: The PEN Anthology of Contemporary Iranian Literature ," edited by Nahid Mozaffari and Ahmad Karimi Hakkak
"The Secret of Laughter: Magical Tales from Classical Persia," by Shusha Guppy
CLASSICAL POETRY Edward FitzGerald's translation of "The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam" ; Dick Davis's translation of Ferdowsi's "Shahnameh: The Persian Book of Kings "; Gertrude Bell's translations of Hafiz; and the works of Rumi.
VIDEO ART AND DVD: Shirin Neshat's video art; "Babak and Friends: A First Norooz," a story for children about the Persian New Year.
FILM "Under the Olive Trees," by Abbas Kiarostami. A story about love in a country where the public expression of love is forbidden.
MUSIC Kayhan Kalhor and Ali Akbar Moradi's "In the Mirror of the Sky"; Kalhor and Mohammad Reza Shajarian's "Night Silence Desert."
FOOD AND CULTURE OF FOOD "New Food of Life: Ancient Persian and Modern Iranian Cooking and Ceremonies," by Najmieh Batmanglij.
PHOTOGRAPHY "Iran the Beautiful," by Daniel Nadler.
Of course, these are but snippets to give you a taste of Iranian culture. You could also take a stroll and have lunch at a Persian market and restaurant such as Yekta in Rockville to get a whiff of Persian scents and spices. . . .
Azar Nafisi is the author of "Reading Lolita in Tehran" (Random House).
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