Journey From The Land Of No. A Girlhood Caught in Revolutionary Iran – Roya Hakakian
Three Rivers Press, 2005
3.5 out of 5 stars
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Journey From The Land of No is about Roya Hakakian’s childhood in revolutionary Iran. As a daughter of Jewish parents who had sympathies for the (left) resistance against the Shah, she paints a picture of both pre-revolutionary Iran, as well as revolutionary Iran, as a country that doesn’t offer (enough) freedom to its citizens. Both the title and the subtitle of this memoir convey this message. Surely, Journey From The Land Of No is meant to point out the many limitations Hakakian suffered from while growing up in Iran. Likewise, a girlhood caught in revolutionary Iran implies the cagelike feeling she experienced.
It’s true that there’s more emphasis on the limitations she experienced during and after the revolution, but I liked that this book stressed the repression people suffered from during the Shah’s regime. The subject is often ignored in memoirs that deal with the revolution. I can’t help but feel that this must be related to the fact that these memoirs are all catered towards a western audience. The regime of the Shah was supported in most western countries and the US promoted it as a primary example of a stable regime in the Middle East. For western readers, as well as for the authors who are writing these memoirs after they’ve left Iran, it might be all too easy to forget the wrongs of a regime that’s been replaced by a regime they disagree with even more.
What I also liked about this memoir is that it pays more attention to the suppression of minorities in revolutionary Iran. As a Jewish girl, she experiences these things firsthand. When she’s arrested by a few revolutionaries for climbing a mountain together with boys that are not directly related to her, she’s released after they realize she’s a Jew. Why? Because there’s simply no way a Jew could care about anything except for money (or so Hakakian states the revolutionaries thought about Jews). Instead of purely emphasizing her experience as a girl/woman in the Islamic Republic of Iran, Hakakian stresses her experiences as a Jewish woman, which at times makes for a more balanced account.
There’s another difference between Hakakian’s memoir and others I’ve read about Iran and that is the use of language. Journey From The Land Of No reads like a novel instead of a biography. In my opinion, there was a more “poetic” feel to her use of language than in Things I’ve Been Silent About, for example. I’ve been thinking about the effect of this a lot these last few days: it might work better in identifying with the story for some people, but for me it didn’t quite work that way.
All in all, Journey From The Land Of No is a great read for people who are interested in reading memoirs about revolutionary Iran. I can’t say that this is the best place to start, but it makes for a good supplement to the other memoirs out there. And as such, it deserves to be read.
On a side note, but not unimportant: I’m still trying to come to grasps with the whole phenomenon of memoirs written by women who have fled from Islamic countries. I strongly believe that these are catered towards a western audience and that they are frequently read as true accounts that proof that “Islam suppresses women”. I can’t say I agree with such a reading of these books. However, it’s hard to find a balance between being a complete skeptic (which I’m not) and believing everything that’s written down, while at the same time trying to combine this balance with a respect for the experiences of the authors. It’s an issue I think about a lot & am trying to figure out, but I’m not yet sure what my definitive answer should be.
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Per your last paragraph, I find your reaction to this interesting simply because I too struggle with the whole “blind faith” thing a lot of memoirs demand. Yet everything you said can also be applied to women who have escaped the Fundamentalist Church of Latter-day Saints, which practices polygamy, and gone on to write memoirs. It’s difficult to learn about other faiths/countries because we as readers are never going to get the full picture that comes with living in this situations.
I also wanted to comment on your least paragraph. I just wonder if there should ever be such a thing as a definitive answer in large part because ever writer’s experience will be different and as long as we are experiencing at a distance as readers we will always have to allow for the variety of responses and motivations on the art of others.
I agree with the above comments and I think your last paragraph is very pertinent. I feel it’s important to keep an open mind, especially when it comes to experiences with religion and I think you do a pretty good job in your reviews of books dealing with difficult topics.
Great review! I´m glad you´re a bit(!) skeptical about these memoirs, I´ve been wondering whether I was just being unkind in thinking that they only told us more or less what we Westerners have come to believe about Islamic countries (my father is from such a country and is forever criticizing Western attitudes, but then he is a man
). Perhaps it´s really that we have to piece together accounts in other genres of literature and the media and have to take memoirs with a pinch of salt.
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Great review, interesting how it deals with her being a Jew as well as with her being a woman. I also find that they are usually more positive about the time under the Shah even though many did not like him. I read a good one that talked about him but I can’t for the life of me remember what it was now…
And you are so right about the fact that a lot of the memoirs that are abounding these days seem to be aimed at a Western audience. Not all though, and I think if you read multiple you get a clearer picture of what life was like. Anything too positive or too negative I tend to wonder about!
I find current publishing trends in the memoir genre fascinating. The number of books being released that are written (or ghost-written?) by men and women who have fought in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars threaten to warp the book store shelves. Then there is the deluge of “misery memoirs”, those written by people who were abused as children. And as you say, there are a lot of memoirs written by women of Middle Eastern origin, which seem to confirm Western ideas about Isalm and life in “those” countries.
I wonder how much of this particular publishing trend is orchestrated propaganda, or am I being too cynical?
The plethora of such books for sale leads me to believe that Orientalism is still with us, live and well in the minds of publishers, at least.
I’ve been seeing this book everywhere lately: http://www.marieclaire.com/celebrity-lifestyle/articles/living/harem-book-interview
I’m sure it will attract a lot of salacious attention.
I love the fact that this deals with a Jewish woman living in Iran. I’ve never read anything about what a person of another religion would experience living under a theocracy, and that interests me a lot.
Though these kinds of memoirs can be and no doubt are read as catering to anti-Muslim sentiments by some, that wasn’t at all the impression I got from Marjane Satrapi or Shirin Ebadi. I think Nafisi, much as I like her, leaves a bit less room for nuance. I can see your point, but I think the opposite reading is also possible – you could say that they stimulate the kind of tolerance and understanding that can only come from knowledge.
I share your concerns about these memoirs of women fleeing from Muslim countries, but I think that the people who believe Islam oppresses women are going to think that regardless. Any memoirs about anything have to be read with a critical eye, because they’re only ever one person’s experience, so when I read these memoirs I try to bear that in mind. As Ana says, some writers are plainly giving us a more complicated picture than others.
This looks like a great read. I haven’t seen any non-Muslim accounts of living in Iran – I’d really like to pick this one up one day!