Unveiled: One Woman's Nightmare in Iran - Hardcover

Mosteshar, Cherry

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0312140614 ISBN 13: 9780312140618

Publisher: St Martins Pr, 1996

Synopsis

This harrowing true story of life in modern Iran is told from the unique perspective of a foreign journalist and Islamic bride. Born in Iran but schooled in the West at Oxford, Cherry Mosteshar returns to her homeland with the aim of explaining her country to the world.
As a member of the wealthy elite, she observes firsthand the prevalence of Western influence prior to the overthrow of the Shah in 1979. However, the religious revolution transforms the country into an extremely conservative Islamic state overnight, and the societal ramifications - especially for women - are shocking. A woman now has a price, that of half a man. Her children belong to her for only the first seven years of their lives. If she refuses to wear the full-length chador, she is branded a whore.
Mosteshar describes this demeaning treatment of women through her own struggle with a very traditional husband who is domineering, unyielding, and cruel. Soon after they wed, Mosteshar discovers that he never divorced his first wife. We watch a bright, articulate, spirited woman try to maintain her personal and professional identity as her husband physically and emotionally abuses her. Mosteshar finds herself trapped in a nightmarish life she had previously only witnessed from afar. She eventually escapes - but at the price of having to leave her country.

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Review

An unflinching look at modern Iran from a woman's viewpoint-- under the veil. Mosteshar, born in Iran but educated in the West at Oxford, returns as an Islamic bride to the country of her birth, only to find herself at the mercy of a society in which she has lost her status and rights, where she is valued as but half a man. Chilling, informative, and fury-fueled, this book pulls back the curtain hiding the shocking picture of female oppression.

From Kirkus Reviews

A talky, untidy, but nevertheless hard-to-put-down account of what happens when an expatriate journalist from a fabulously wealthy Iranian family resettles in her homeland to write about life under Islamic rule. As a woman, Mosteshar must wear the chador, or veil, plus trousers and coat in even sweltering weather to prevent any chink of female hair or flesh from showing, in conformity with endless (and changeable) social and religious codes. In her various quests to obtain a press card, get medical care for her relatives, and ultimately marry and divorce, she must deal with a bureaucracy corrupt beyond Kafka's wildest nightmares. Undeterred by the miserable examples of her female relatives, the wives of boors who, according to Mosteshar, use the Koran as a sanction to abuse and humiliate, she too, marries a boor--this one with another wife and family he requires her to both countenance and financially support. Her motives for marrying this man against her own better judgment are never made explicit. Naturally, the marriage is a disaster. Being Iranian, for Mosteshar, becomes a kind of gruesome psychological affliction: The good Muslim wife that she, despite her Oxford education, strives to be is, by Western standards, a victim of masochism and delusion. Finally, she does rouse herself to begin the difficult process of regaining her freedom and repairing her damaged self. Although the book contains much interesting information--we learn of the seegeh, or temporary marriage (basically legalized adultery), the ``morals police,'' and constant body searches--and often a comic tone, Mosteshar has evidently not awakened completely enough from her nightmare to tell her story with much perspective: There are far too many repeated assertions of how much she hated her husband and how disgusting his sexual advances and gobs of spit were. Overall, reading Unveiled, it's hard not to see today's Iran as a vast, ugly tragedy for women. (8 pages b&w photos, not seen) -- Copyright ©1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

About this edition

• Publisher: St Martins Pr
• Publication date: 1996
• ISBN 10: 0312140614
• ISBN 13: 9780312140618
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 352