Unveiled - Softcover

Mosteshar, Cherry

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0312962886 ISBN 13: 9780312962883

Publisher: St. Martin's Paperbacks, 1997

Synopsis

She was trapped behind the veil of hell

Attractive exucated in Oxdord, and a respected journalist, Cherry Mosteshar seemed the last woman likely to become a terrified Islamic bride; beaten if a wisp of hair showed from beneath her head scarf, forbidden from leaving the country without her husband's permission, and legally worth half a man.

A nightmare world of violence and degradation

But Cherry wanted to returned to the homeland she knew as a child. Filled with ideals and longings, she hoped to help the fundamentalist-ruled national to enter the twentieth century. Instead, she ended up a virtual slave in a nation where a woman constantly experiences fear and degradation.

Now her true story can finally be told

This is Cherry's true story--from her arrival into a monstrous marriage where she became just one of her husband's wives, to her harrowing years as a victim of his sexual whims and his violent outbursts, to her heroic struggle to maintain her identiy while a prisoner stripped of all rights and dignity, to her plight as a terrified victim ready to do anything to save her own life and escape...

About this title

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. Martin's Paperbacks
• Publication date: 1997
• ISBN 10: 0312962886
• ISBN 13: 9780312962883
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 368