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Lipstick Jihad: A Memoir of Growing Up Iranian in America and American in Iran
Lipstick Jihad A Memoir of Growing Up Iranian in America and American in Iran Author:Azadeh Moaveni A young Iranian-American journalist returns to Tehran and discovers not only the oppressive and decadent life of her Iranian counterparts who have grown up since the revolution, but the pain of searching for a homeland that may not exist. As far back as she can remember, Azadeh Moaveni has felt at odds with her tangled identity as an Iranian-Ame... more »rican. In suburban America, Azadeh lived in two worlds. At home, she was the daughter of the Iranian exile community, serving tea, clinging to tradition, and dreaming of Tehran. Outside, she was a California girl who practiced yoga and listened to Madonna. For years, she ignored the tense stand off between her two cultures. But college magnified the clash between Iran and America, and after graduating, she moved to Iran as a journalist. This is the story of her search for identity, between two cultures cleaved apart by a violent history. It is also the story of Iran, a restive land lost in the twilight of its revolution. Moaveni's homecoming falls in the heady days of the country's reform movement, when young people demonstrated in the streets and shouted for the Islamic regime to end. In these tumultuous times, she struggles to build a life in a dark country, wholly unlike the luminous, saffron and turquoise-tinted Iran of her imagination. As she leads us through the drug-soaked, underground parties of Tehran, into the hedonistic lives of young people desperate for change, Moaveni paints a rare portrait of Iran's rebellious next generation. The landscape of her Tehran-ski slopes, fashion shows, malls and cafes-is populated by a cast of young people whose exuberance and despair brings the modern reality of Iran to vivid life.« less
Lipstick Jihad is a wonderful introduction to the conflicted culture that is Iran today, and how women carry the burdens of that conflict. Azadeh Moaveni is a clear and excellent writer, and she loves Iran and its people, even as she is endlessly frustrated and angered by its restrictions on women.
She shows us that many Iranians want good relations with the rest of the world, and many deeply religious people would prefer a secular government. This was one of the first books that helped me see Iran in its full humanity, rather than through the lens of politics and "U.S. interests." The reader comes to share some of Moaveni's admiration for the culture, and some of her anger as well. But mostly one comes away seeing that the people of Iran are grappling with their own destiny; that there are forces for democracy working hard there; and that it is a complex country that will determine its own future intelligently if allowed to do so.
I have been trying to read Madeline Albright's book The Mighty and the Almighty: Reflections on America, God, and World Affairs (which is mostly about American politics relating to the Middle East) since it came out in 2006 and am still only half way through it six freaking years later. But I finished Lipstick Jihad (which explains the same subject matter) in a little over a week, savoring every chapter. Moaveni is entertaining rather than didactic; reading her is like listening to a hilarious friend vent in a highly educational sort of way.
I love a book written by a journalist, and am also a sucker for the multi-cultural genre, and a third category I enjoy is the ambiguous descriptor "haunting"; Lipstick Jihad fits all three. Azadeh Moaveni was born in northern California, to divorced Iranian exiles and the close-knit worldwide Iranian diaspora. As a rebellious teenager she suffers being Iranian in America; then after a brief stint as a student in Cairo she goes on to feel disadvantaged in Iran as an American. Throughout the book Moaveni generously shares stories of her family's squabbles, struggles, and even the random scandal. I wish she were as forthcoming with details about her own love life but I guess that's just my nosiness. She published this book before she turned 30, I hope there will be many more parts of her memoir to come.
