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Published Mar 2005
320 pages
Genre: Biography/Memoir
Publication Information
A young Iranian-American journalist returns to Tehran and discovers not only the oppressive and decadent life of her Iranian counterparts who have grown up since the revolution, but the pain of searching for a homeland that may not exist.
As far back as she can remember, Azadeh Moaveni has felt at odds with her tangled identity as an Iranian-American. In suburban America, Azadeh lived in two worlds. At home, she was the daughter of the Iranian exile community, serving tea, clinging to tradition, and dreaming of Tehran. Outside, she was a California girl who practiced yoga and listened to Madonna. For years, she ignored the tense stand off between her two cultures. But college magnified the clash between Iran and America, and after graduating, she moved to Iran as a journalist. This is the story of her search for identity, between two cultures cleaved apart by a violent history. It is also the story of Iran, a restive land lost in the twilight of its revolution.
Moaveni's homecoming falls in the heady days of the country's reform movement, when young people demonstrated in the streets and shouted for the Islamic regime to end. In these tumultuous times, she struggles to build a life in a dark country, wholly unlike the luminous, saffron and turquoise-tinted Iran of her imagination. As she leads us through the drug-soaked, underground parties of Tehran, into the hedonistic lives of young people desperate for change, Moaveni paints a rare portrait of Iran's rebellious next generation. The landscape of her Tehran-ski slopes, fashion shows, malls and cafes-is populated by a cast of young people whose exuberance and despair brings the modern reality of Iran to vivid life.
"Lipstick Jihad is a catchy title, but its flippancy does a disservice to Moaveni's nuanced narrative." - Publishers Weekly.
"Her book shows us what Iran looks like in spring and fall, with all those seasons' biting winds and unexpected days of sunshine." - The Washington Post.
"Moaveni is riveting when she works her way into a scene ... Not quite Persepolis without the pictures, but good stuff all the same." - Booklist.
"Beautifully nuanced, complex, illuminating... Moaveni makes Iran a distinct entity." - Kirkus Reviews.
"Moaveni's story of mixed-up identity will appeal to teenagers and college students, with its hip humor and frank emotion. Recommended for senior high school students, advanced students, and adults." - KLIATT.
"It makes fine reading both for those who will identify with the author and for those who are curious about how teens in very different countries negotiate their lives." - School Library Journal.
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Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Azadeh Moaveni is a journalist, writer, and academic who has been covering the Middle East for nearly two decades. She started reporting in Cairo in 1998, while on a Fulbright fellowship to the American University in Cairo. It was from there that she travelled to Iran in 1999, to cover the students riots at the University of Tehran, the worst disturbance the country, her family's homeland, had experienced since its 1979 revolution. For the next several years she reported from throughout the region as Middle East correspondent for Time magazine, based in Tehran, but covering Lebanon, Syria, Egypt, Jordan, Qatar, and Iraq. In 2003 when the United States invaded Iraq, she travelled across land from Tehran to Najaf on the convoy of Ayatollah Baqer Hakim.
In 2005, amidst the rise of ...
... Full Biography
Link to Azadeh Moaveni's Website
Name Pronunciation
Azadeh Moaveni: a-zuh-DAY mo-uh-VAH-nee. The first A in "Azadeh" is flat, like the "a" in "dad."
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