5 books to help you understand Iran – recommended by experts
- Written by James Ley, Deputy Books + Ideas Editor, The Conversation
Since the Islamic Revolution of 1979, Iran has been condemned in the West as a repressive theocracy. But the history of this vast nation of more than 90 million people is long and complicated.
In times of war, we can overlook complexities in search of simple certainties. We asked five experts on Iran to recommend books that offer complex insights into the nation’s politics, culture and people.
They explore the revolution through religion, politics, Iranian mythology and personal experience. There’s a classic graphic-novel memoir and a daring novel of addiction. And an astonishing memoir takes us inside Iran’s prisons.
Persepolis – Marjane Satrapi
The Uncaged Sky is the astonishing memoir of Kylie Moore-Gilbert, an Australian who spent 804 days in Iran’s prisons.
As her interrogations began, she was served chocolate cake, typifying the bizarre style of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corp. She reports the tortures and reprieves of prison life: disgusting toilets, lenient wardens and complex relationships. In their wake, her resilience is jaw-dropping; “I am still free, because freedom is an attitude, freedom is a state of mind”.
She illuminates broader issues in Iran, including the Revolutionary Guards’ extortions (“it’s about determining your price”) and the treatment of imprisoned women. In the inmates that protect her, and in her own machinations, we observe people seeking out agency – freedom within repression.
Hessom Razavi is a clinical associate professor of ophthalmology at the University of Western Australia. His family fled to Australia from Iran in the 1980s to escape persecution.
How Islam Rules in Iran: Theology and Theocracy in the Islamic Republic – Mehran Kamrava
Mehran Kamrava is an authority on Iran. His book, How Islam Rules in Iran: Theology and Theocracy in the Islamic Republic, provides comprehensive coverage of the evolution of the structure of Islamic rule, from its inception in 1979 to 2024.
It examines the theological debate that has shaped the Islamic Republic’s political institutions and state policies. In this, Kamrava shows “how religious intellectual production in Iran has impacted the ongoing transformation of Iranian Shi’ism and ultimately underwritten the fate of the Islamic Republic”.
The book is very insightful about the ways religion and politics have interacted to make the Republic both resilient and vulnerable.
Amin Saikal is emeritus professor of Middle Eastern studies at Australian National University.
In Case of Emergency – Mahsa Mohebali
It’s one of Iran’s many paradoxes that Mahsa Mohebali’s prize-winning 2008 novel, about an addict in an apocalyptic, earthquake devastated Tehran, could be published – though some parts were censored, and all her books are now banned.
Originally published as Negaran nabash (Don’t Worry), In Case of Emergency follows an unconventional, disenchanted young woman from Iran’s upper class as she roams the city’s streets seeking her next dose, while her family tries to escape Tehran. Playful and raw, it depicts youth at the point of despair.
Extreme in its language and topics, it is not for the faint-hearted: translator Mariam Rahmani has deliberately gone all-in on the profanity. The result is a deeply unsettling, powerful novel that sheds light on a facet of Iranian society you didn’t know existed.
Laetitia Nanquette is an associate professor in literary studies at UNSW, specialising in Persian literature and Iranian book history.
Authors: James Ley, Deputy Books + Ideas Editor, The ConversationRead more https://theconversation.com/5-books-to-help-you-understand-iran-recommended-by-experts-278000
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