Image Credit: Persian Mirror
It had been a while since I traveled to the Middle East and that is how I decided to read “Persian Girls” by Nahid Rachlin. In this gripping memoir, Rachlin takes us through her life from her childhood in Iran to her courageous break-away to the US. Nahid is only six months old when her mother gives her away to Maryam her sister. Maryam brings her up with all the love and care in the world but when she is around nine years old her father forcibly takes her away to live with her family. There, her sister Pari becomes her close friend and confidante. Nahid rebels against the suffocating societal norms of Iran and fights her way to America for her higher studies. There she meets her future husband and starts a family. But her life is shattered when she hears of Pari’s death, which she doubts is a suicide and not an accident.
Persian Girls has various angles and layers to it and what I can give here is just a threadbare synopsis. Rachlin explores her complicated relationship with her mother and her distant relationship with her father. She seeks refuge in the one person who understands her – Pari. But Pari soon gets married, unwillingly, to Taheri and after she leaves Rachlin is aware that she must escape to America or she would be next. Even after she goes to the US, Pari remains her solace.
When she reaches the US she realizes that the land of her dreams is not exactly as she had expected it to be. She faces prejudice and isolation from all the other girls in her college. Loneliness envelops her until she meets Howie whom she marries later.
We learn of the Shah of Iran’s pseudo-modern approach and of its people especially men who were against “Westoxification.” The oppressive climate of the country did not allow women to further their education or pursue their interests with freedom. Instead they were expected to get married by the age of 9 or 10 to men much older than them. Through her own experiences Rachlin portrays the vast contrast between Iran and the US, its societies, attitudes and cultures.
Persian Girls is a poignant story of Rachlin’s love for her sister, the thread that holds the book together. It is also Rachlin’s own painful story of escape, in all meanings of the word. It is also the stories of women in a country like Iran that remains unheard and unvoiced. It is a first hand account of the political conditions that prevailed in Iran during the 70s and 80s and how drastically they changed and kept changing later on making it not just Rachlin’s memoir but that of Iran as well. Above all it is a story of courage, of not just Rachlin but all the women who live cloistered in a male dominated society.
Verdict: Very interesting, lucid and moving
Rating: 3.5/5
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