Honeymoon in Tehran: Two Years of Love and Danger in Iran (50 page)
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Authors: Azadeh Moaveni
Most of the characters in this book carry their real names and identities. In a handful of cases, I have changed names to protect people. In one instance I have changed the biological details of a character whose position in Iran requires special protection. In the case of the infamous Mr. X, whose “real” name was an acknowledged pseudonym, the “X” simply veils what was already hidden.
I benefited tremendously from knowing in advance that these two years of my life would be transformed into a story. I have reconstructed most of the dialogue and events from notes, some more detailed than others. To fill the lacunae in my journal, I have relied on the help and memory of those who shared the experience with me.
Readers may be confused to find familiar Arabic words and names, for example Ramadan and Hussein, rendered a bit differently: Ramazan, Hossein. I have used the Persian transliteration of Arabic to reflect how these words are pronounced in Iran.
I am deeply grateful to the many individuals who supported my work in Iran and the publication of
Honeymoon in Tehran.
For generously sharing time and knowledge over the years: Farhad Behbehani, Kavous Sayyed-Emami, Mohammad Ali Abtahi, Saeed Laylaz, Nasser Hadian, Hadi Semati, Hamidreza Jalaipour, Mahmoud Sariolghalam, Mohammad Atrianfar, Goli Emami, Ali Dehbashi, and Majid Derakhshani. Mohammed Reza Lotfi, for the privilege of his friendship and continual inspiration. Shirin Ebadi, whose counsel and company have enriched my understanding of Iran immeasurably.
For sharing their expertise: Farideh Farhi, Vali Nasr, Karim Sadjadpour, Shahab Ahmed, and Sohrab Mahdavi. At the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance: Effat ol-Sadat Eghbali, Gelareh Pardakhty, and Farahnaz Abdi, who have treated me with nothing but kindness and respect for so many years. Muhammad Sahimi, Mohamad Bazzi, and Fiona O’Brien, for reading parts of the book and offering their excellent insights. My editors at
Time,
eternally patient with a book-writing mom-reporter: Howard Chua-Eoan, Romesh Ratnesar, Tony Karon, and Lisa Beyer. To Ambassador M. Javad Zarif, for his unstinting encouragement.
Eshrat Abedi Hayaty, my mother-in-law, for crossing continents to look after my son while I wrote. My friends in Iran, for their stories:
Nazila, Carmen, Solmaz, Shabnam, Mehrdad, Ghazal, and Ahmad. My mother, Fariba Katouzi, for her tremendous resilience.
David Ebershoff, my editor at Random House, for his wonderful enthusiasm and generosity, and for bringing his brilliant creative instincts to virtually every line of
Honeymoon in Tehran.
Lindsey Schwoeri, for additional help editing. Diana Finch, my agent, for her abundant support and keen oversight of everything to do with my writing.
Most of all, I want to thank my husband, Arash Zeini, who showed me glorious corners of Iran that I never knew existed, championed me throughout the darkest times, and nurtured my ideas and ambitions as though they were his own. Without Arash’s insight, love, and tireless help, this book simply would not have been written.
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1. On her trip to Iran to report on the 2005 presidential election, Moaveni encounters many Iranians who are boycotting the vote to register their disapproval with the government. Others, however, plan to participate despite their opposition to the mullahs because they wish to shape the outcome. Compare the two perspectives of ethicality versus practicality. Discuss whether voting under an authoritarian regime adds to the government’s legitimacy. Are those who choose to abstain also somehow complicit in what unfolds? What would you choose to do in such a situation?
2. Moaveni writes of Iran in 2005, “Iranians accustomed to a bland, mullah-controlled existence lacking in entertainment and retail prospect had never faced so much choice”. Compare her portrait of Iran at that moment with the more repressive society she describes in the book’s final pages.
3. In exploring the shocking victory of the hard-liner Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Moaveni learns that he ran on a platform of more jobs and economic change. The new president’s radical Islamic ideology was as much a shock to Iranians as it was to everyone else in the world. Discuss whether the real circumstances surrounding the president’s victory were effectively reported by the Western media. Did you assume that Ahmadinejad reflected Iranians’ true worldview?
4. Shirin Ebadi, Iran’s Nobel laureate, appears as a character throughout the book. How would you describe her?
5. Compare Arash’s and Azadeh’s attitudes to the Shia festival of Ashoura. How do their views reflect their respective experiences with Islam, and Islam’s intersection with politics?
6. Does Azadeh’s description of the government’s premarital class, with its frank discussion of sex and liberal attitudes toward marriage and divorce, resonate with your understanding of Iran as a fundamentalist nation?
7. Was it foolish for Azadeh to risk her future by getting married under Iranian law?
8. Moaveni writes that “Iran has struggled for centuries to reconcile the Islamic and Persian traditions”. The tension between these two pasts recurs throughout the book. Discuss what it means for Iran to be a Persian, as opposed to an Arab, nation, and how this history influences Iranian identity today.
9. Azadeh and Arash argue frequently about Islam, specifically whether the faith should be judged by its core tenets or by the realities of its modern adherents. What do you think?
10. In the chapter entitled “The Persian Bride’s Handbook,” Azadeh describes a society enthralled with extravagant weddings. What parallels do you see between the Iranian and the American wedding industries? What does the desire for such productions, the willingness to spend beyond one’s means, say about our societies?
11. As she chronicles Iranian attitudes toward government support for groups like Hezbollah, Azadeh portrays a moderate society that frowns upon radicalism and yearns for respectable ties with the outside world. Is her depiction surprising, given how Iran is typically portrayed in the media? Is it convincing?
12. Discuss Azadeh’s interaction with the family she describes in the chapter “The Reluctant Fundamentalist.” How do Azadeh’s attitudes toward her reporting and the Iranians she interacts with evolve throughout the book?
13. The history of Iran–U.S. relations, particularly the impact of the two countries’ troubled relationship on the daily lives of Iranians, is discussed throughout the book. Arash describes how U.S. economic sanctions keep Microsoft from developing Farsi software, effectively denying millions of Iranians access to computer-based learning. We learn that sanctions bar Iran from buying American and often European aircraft, and that many civilians die each year from accidents in shoddy Russian planes. Azadeh also finds that the Bush administration’s democracy promotion fund has prompted a major government crackdown on civil society. She writes that “activists and scholars, the people who were toiling in their respective fields to make Iran a more open society, were being targeted as a result”. Discuss how U.S. policy intimately affects Iranians’ lives.
14. Azadeh questions “whether it [is] even possible to raise an open-minded, healthy child in a culture that was fundamentalist and anarchic”. Discuss how families cope when trying to impart values that run counter to the mainstream culture around them.
15. Azadeh writes that “paradoxically, authoritarian laws had somehow made Iranian society more tolerant”. In her description of young Iranian women’s instrumentalist attitudes toward the veil, she interprets the ease with which women shed or don the veil to suit their relationship ambitions as progress. Would you agree that this is progress within a still deeply patriarchal culture, or do you consider it just an extenuation of adjusting to fit the demands of men?
16. The portrait of Iran that emerges throughout
Honeymoon in Tehran
is often quite complex. Azadeh describes the regime’s censorship of music and literature, but points out that censorship predates the Islamic Republic. In describing how Iranians’ attitudes toward music have evolved in the last century, she notes how the government’s repressiveness once reflected very real culture mores: “Something in our culture nurtures tyranny, and has for centuries”. Discuss the theme of complicity between Iranians and their government.
17. Discuss how Azadeh’s relationship with Mr. X evolves throughout the book.
18. In the Epilogue, Azadeh finds motherhood in the West more challenging and isolating than in Iran. Discuss how cultural norms of family life influence how stay-at-home mothers and working mothers are able to balance their own needs against those of their children.
A
ZADEH
M
OAVENI
is the author of
Lipstick Jihad
and coauthor, with Nobel Peace Prize laureate Shirin Ebadi, of
Iran Awakening
. She has lived and reported throughout the Middle East, and speaks both Farsi and Arabic fluently. As one of the few American correspondents allowed to work continuously in Iran since 1999, she has reported widely on youth culture, women’s rights, and Islamic reform for
Time, The New York Times Book Review, The Washington Post,
NPR, and the
Los Angeles Times.
Currently a
Time
magazine contributing writer on Iran and the Middle East, she lives with her husband and son in London.
Honeymoon in Tehran
is a work of nonfiction.
Some names and identifying details have been changed.
Copyright © 2009 by Azadeh Moaveni
All rights reserved.
RANDOM HOUSE
and colophon are registered
trademarks of Random House, Inc.
eISBN: 978-1-58836-777-8
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