Stories from Iran

Nafisi details her experiences in Iran from 1979 to 1997, when she taught English literature in Tehran universities and hosted a private seminar on Western literature for female university students. Born and raised in Iran, the author offers readers a personal account of events in the postrevolutionary period that are often generalized by other writers.

Satrapi tells her story of growing up during the Islamic Revolution and the Iraq War through black-and-white comic strip images.

Tehran of the 1940s is the setting for the humorous and at times satirical tale of young love and family life in the Middle East.

A Jew in a land where Islamic fundamentalism grew ever stronger, Roya was twelve when the revolution came, closing opportunities to the young woman even as she matured into a brilliant student.

The Nobel Peace Prize-winner speaks of her pre-revolution law career in Iran, the ideals behind that revolution, and her difficult life in the reality which its leaders brought to the country. Demoted by authorities who believe women are unfit to be judges, she nevertheless fought on for the rights of women and children, despite imprisonment and assasination attempts.

Wright examines how having the international spotlight shown on Iran during the hostage crisis, terrorist bombings, and Iraq War distracted the government's attention from the country's problems of unemployment, rising population, and food shortages.

An émigré Iranian colonel has spent most of his savings trying to enhance his daughter's chances of a good marriage. Once she is married, he spends the remaining funds on a house at an auction, unwittingly putting himself and his family in the middle of a legal tussle with the house's former owner. What begins as a legal struggle turns into a personal confrontation, with tragic results. 

The last empress of Iran tells the story of her decades-long marriage to the Shah. Her story is set during a time of change and, ultimately, revolution that forced the Pahlavi family to flee the country.