Women Write Iran

This book under review is a study of the life narratives by Iranian women in diaspora. The author, Nima Naghibi, Associate Professor of English at Ryerson University, Toronto, has provided a probing investigation of these life narratives that transcend generic boundaries to include memoirs, documentary films, prison testimonials, and graphic novels. The framework suggested by the author for reading this book consists of the traumatic experience (emphasis added) of 1979 Iranian revolution and the nostalgic longing (emphasis added) on part of the Iranian women in diaspora (p. 7).These narratives constitute the response to two historical moments in Iran: the 1979 revolution and the 2009 post presidential election protests. The author argues that ‘the 1979 revolution and the short-lived revival and brutal squelching of the revolutionary energies of 2009 have produced possibilities of articulation and self-expression for diasporic Iranian women in particular, and these forms of autobiographical expression have emerged in various print and digitized media’(p. 11)....