Black on Black: Iran Revisited - Softcover

Briongos, Ana M.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0864427956 ISBN 13: 9780864427953

Publisher: Lonely Planet, 2000

Synopsis

Short-listed for the Thomas Cook/The Daily Telegraph Travel Book Award 2001

'If I had to choose a colour to charcterise Iran, I would choose black: the colour worn by the women and the men, the colour of the crepe that decorates the streets and houses during religious celebrations, the colour of the country's riches: oil and caviar.'

Ana Briongos first travelled to Iran in the 1960s. She returned in the early 1970s to study Persian at the University of Tehran and has continued to return to this country of contradictions ever since. But Black on Black is not so much her own story as that of her friends and acquaintances. Ultimately, all her tales are about coming to terms with the consequences of the Islamic Revolution of 1979.

Ana describes the everyday life of the people she meets and visits. These quiet, domestic moments build, like the pieces of mosaic, into an intricate portrait of a country where things are not always as they appear. With a disarming gentleness, Ana reveals a country far more complex - both now and in its 'liberal' days under the Shah - than television soundbites have led us to believe.

About this title

From Booklist:

When the shah of Iran was deposed in the late 1970s after 2,000 years of continuous government by shahs, it marked the beginning of a new era in everyday Iranian life as well as in politics. Since 1960 the Spanish author Briongos has made numerous pilgrimages to Iran. Her chief discovery is the Iranian belief in and practice of ketman, a traditional philosophy that allows its adherents to publicly renounce their innermost beliefs while remaining loyal to those beliefs anyway. This belief allows Iranians to ward off the dictatorial rule of their government, which is nothing if not harsh in its policies in the current era of the ayatollahs. In addition, Briongos, as a woman, is able to penetrate what is probably the most mysterious aspect of Muslim society: the role of women, which has changed significantly since the Islamic revolution. Briongos' original Spanish prose has been translated by Chris Andrews, who does an admirable job making this complex people come alive, with vivid descriptions of accepted practices. Joe Collins

About this edition

• Publisher: Lonely Planet
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 0864427956
• ISBN 13: 9780864427953
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 179