by Julie Townsend
Shirin Ebadi studied at Tehran University and later became a judge during the reign of the Shah in pre-revolutionary Tehran, but in the months following the return of Ayatollah Khomeini in 1979, she lost her job, her freedom and her rights as an independent women. From her home in the fresh-aired upper reaches of northern Tehran, she chronicles in her memoir, Iran Awakening: A Memoir of Revolution and Hope, a professional woman’s perspective on the coming of the Iranian Revolution and how she survived in its shocking aftermath.
The Islamic Republic set a once-modern country back hundreds of years. Suddenly, women were unable to walk in the streets alone, to wear western clothing, makeup or nail polish, to listen to foreign music, to travel, or to socialize with men. The dress code for women became strictly enforced by armed police who walked the streets searching for offenders. The guilty parties could easily find themselves in Evin Prison in northern Tehran, where they were subject to intense interrogation and punishment (Azadeh Moaveni gives a shocking and detailed account of this experience first-hand in her book Tehran Memoir, as does Marina Nemat in Prisoner of Tehran.) After the revolution, freedom curtailed, cut off from her colleagues, friends and former life, Shirin herself becomes a recluse. Realizing the plight of women in post-Shah Iran, she turns to activism and advocacy for women’s rights.
Shirin describes Iranians as hero-worshippers to explain the cult-like following of Iran’s new leaders. Many Iranians were taken aback by the extremist views and policies of those who followed the Pahlavi Dynasty. Emancipation from the dictatorship and power of the monarchy did not bring freedom. Armed guards and streets patrolled by police replaced Savac, the Shah’s secret police. Fear permeated the city in post-Shah Iran. Of women after the revolution, Shirin writes, “We speak in whispers, almost afraid of the air itself.”
Descriptions of the beauty of her country stand in sharp contrast to the horrors experienced there. An arched monument gracing the centre of the square in front of the long boulevard leading from southern Tehran into the city. The Blue mosque, an azure dome with spiralling twin minarets, magnificent and timeless. The Tehran Bazaar with its clanging of hammer on metal, glass vials of saffron, richly coloured Persian rugs, and trays of gold jewellery. Scarves draped from booths selling copper Samovars and painted clay Hookah pipes. The smell of fresh barbary bread wafting from a brick oven. Mosaics inlaid with turquoise and gold glinting in the noonday sun. The winding mountain roads with rocky overhangs and steep precipices leading to ski slopes. Snowcapped Alborz Mountain peaks standing in silence, witness to the plateau 4,000 feet above sea level on which the city was built. Orange groves in Shiraz perfuming the air in spring. The grandeur of the ancient ruins of Persepolis. Shirin remains inspired by the poet Rumi who was also hopeful in times of despair: “Sadness to me is the happiest time, when a shining city rises from the ruins of my drunken mind. Those times when I’m silent and still as the earth. The thunder of my roar is heard across the universe.”
Holding fast to the belief that words can transform reality, Shirin writes in her memoir: “The written word is the most powerful tool we have to protect ourselves.” She defends the rights of women from her home, resisting the temptation to flee her country as many others had done. She believes that her former status as a respected judge will offer her protection from the armed police, the enforcers of the new laws of Islam; that it will protect her from arrest and torture, rumoured to be the fate of supporters of the Shah and women caught in the wrong place at the wrong time. She has the courage to stand up for the truth. At one point she is imprisoned for her beliefs, and surviving this experience connects Shirin to the fears of her imprisoned sisters, further strengthening her passion to pursue justice and freedom for the women of Iran.
Shirin’s political views are woven seamlessly throughout her narrative. But it is the sharing of her innermost secrets, anecdotes about her friends and family, that engages the reader. She pulls us into her world and helps us to empathize with the real women struggling to survive persecution. All women, and especially those surviving any form of persecution, can look to Shirin Ebadi for inspiration.
JULIE TOWNSEND is a teacher who has dabbled in writing. Her current interest in memoir writing stems from her experiences growing up overseas. At the age of six, she moved to Montreal from Manchester, England. At twelve, her family moved again to Kingston, Jamaica, and three years later, to Tehran, Iran. Julie graduated from an international high school in 1978, leaving the country weeks before the Islamic revolution began. Julie lives in Manotick, Ontario. She participated in Sabino Springs Writers’ Retreat in Tucson, Arizona, in January 2011.
Julie,
Your review emphasizes the importance for Westerners to learn about Iran’s Islamic Republic and culture. All the while I read your review I wondered how Shirin Ebadi survived in Iran, especially with this revealing book. So, I googled her name and Wikipedia (quasi-reliable source) told me the hard truth.
“In 2009, Ebadi’s award was allegedly confiscated by Iranian authorities, though this was later denied by the Iranian government. If true, she would be the first person in the history of the Nobel Prize whose award has been forcibly seized by state authorities.Ebadi lives in Teheran, but she has been in exile in the U.K. since June 2009 due to the increase in persecution of Iranian citizens, who are critical of the current regime.”
Ebadi’s warm and loving descriptions of the beauty of her country contrast starkly against the repression of its governance. I read Marina Nemat’s Prisoner of Tehran and feel respect,amazement and sadness that Iranian women must leave their country to find their voice. I cannot imagine living with such fear and powerlessness.
This is a moving review and I’ll place the book on my To Read list.