Language | English |
---|---|
ISBN-10 | 0385523343 |
ISBN-13 | 978-0-385-52334-9 |
No of pages | 259 |
Font Size | Medium |
Book Publisher | Doubleday |
Published Date | 23 Sep 2008 |
What happens when you move to Iran, heartland of the 'Axis of Evil', with your family in tow? - asks Hooman Majd, author of the acclaimed The Ayatollah Begs to Differ and The Ayatollah's Democracy
"Welcome to Iran," he said. "This isn't Switzerland." We have an idea of the texture of life in Paris or Rome, but what is the texture of life like in Tehran?
How do you get a driving license? Or secure an account with a discreet and reputable liquor dealer? And how on earth do you explain to an official that your son was indeed born just a month after your marriage?
In The Ministry of Guidance Invites You to Not Stay, Hooman Majd introduces us to the daily delights and challenges of life in the so-called axis of evil. His funny, wry account of daily life is a mixture of extreme driving,
intense sociability, yellow-tinged sheep's yoghurt and truly good Cuban cigars, interspersed with challenges from the religious police, stealthy internet use and polite yet concerning interrogations inside government ministries.
At parties he both hears stories from friends of life in Even prison after the Green Revolution and witnesses heady Western-style nihilism. From the smoggy streets of Tehran to the beautiful cities and mountains around it, this is a warm and revealing account of life in reverse-exile.
'Fascinating' - Independent ‘A sympathetic and nuanced picture of a complex society too often misinterpreted by the outside world' - Telegraph
Hooman Majd was born in Tehran, Iran in 1957 and has lived in the US since 1979. He has written for numerous publications including The New Yorker, the New York Times and the Financial Times.
His previous books are the New York Times bestseller The Ayatollah Begs to Differ and The Ayatollahs' Democracy. He moved to Tehran with his American wife and baby son.
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A revealing look at Iran by an American journalist with an insider’s access behind Persian walls The grandson of an eminent ayatollah and the son of an Iranian diplomat, now an American citizen, Holman Majid is, in a way, both 100 percent Iranian and 100 percent American, combining an insider’s knowledge of how Iran works with a remarkable ability to explain its history and its quirks to Western readers.
In The Ayatollah Begs to Differ, he paints a portrait of a country that is fiercely proud of its Persian heritage, mystified by its outsider status, and scornful of the idea that the United States can dictate how it should interact with the community of nations.
With wit, style, and an unusual ability to get past the typical sound bite on Iran, Majid reveals the paradoxes inherent in the Iranian character which have baffled Americans for more than thirty years. Meeting with sartorially challenged government officials in the presidential palace; smoking opium with an addicted cleric, his family, and friends; drinking fine whiskey at parties in fashionable North Tehran; and gingerly self-flagellating in a celebration of Ashura, Majid takes readers on a rare tour of Iran and shares insights shaped by his complex heritage.
He considers Iran as a Muslim country, as a Shiite country, and, perhaps above all, as a Persian one. Majid shows that as Shiites marked by an inferiority complex, and Persians marked by a superiority complex, Iranians are fiercely devoted to protecting their rights, a factor that has contributed to their intransigence over their nuclear programs.
He points to the importance of the Persian view of privacy, arguing that the stability of the current regime owes much to the freedom Iranians have to behave as they wish behind “Persian walls.” And with wry affection, Majid describes the Persian concept of taarof, an exaggerated form of polite self-deprecation that may explain some of Iranian President Ahmadinejad’s more bizarre public moments.
With unforgettable portraits of Iranians, from government figures to women cab drivers to reform-minded Ayatollahs, Majid brings to life a country that is deeply religious yet highly cosmopolitan, authoritarian yet with democratic and reformist traditions—an Iran that is a more nuanced nemesis to the United States than it is typically portrayed to be.