In the House of My Bibi: Growing Up in Revolutionary Iran - Softcover

Kherad, Nastaran

4.04

28 ratings by Goodreads

9780897335676: In the House of My Bibi: Growing Up in Revolutionary Iran

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0897335678 ISBN 13: 9780897335676

Publisher: Academy Chicago Publishers, 2008

View all copies of this ISBN edition:

A profound and moving account of the author's experience growing up in Iran in the wake of the 1979 revolution. The narrative differs from other books on the subject in that she was imprisoned at age 18 on trumpted-up political charges. Nastaran offers a dramatic retelling of her childhood, and events leading up to, during and after her brutal captivity. She also recounts the mesmerizing stories told by her grandmother, Bibi, and a special bond she developed with her broher, Mohammed, who was on death row for his political beliefs. A spectacular story of struggle and survival, readers will gain a deeper understanding of a country and its people that many in the West know very little about.

"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.

Book Description:

This is a powerful memoir of a girlhood spent during the upheaval of the Iranian Revolution of 1979. From early childhood, Nastaran chronicles a vivid recollection of her experiences growing up in turbulent revolutionary Iran, which culminated in her imprisonment at age 18 on trumped-up political charges. During a brutal incarceration in the women’s cell block of Adelabad Prison in the city of Shiraz, the author’s hometown in Southern Iran, she was tortured and lashed and made to live in harsh over-crowded conditions. Many of the people imprisoned at Adelabad were innocent victims of tyranny, and this included Nastaran’s older brother, Mohammed, 24 years old, who was on death row for his political views and his ideals of a free and just society. Veiled in secrecy, the Ayatollah Khomeini’s secret police executed tens of thousands of young university students and school children in a sweeping attempt to destroy all signs of modernization and to sever all ties with the western world.

Nastaran grew up in Shiraz, a beautiful garden city, under the protection of her Bibi, her maternal grandmother. Bibi mesmerized her granddaughter with countless stories, traditional prayers, and simple yet profound wisdom gleaned from a harsh life well led. At first it is just Nastaran and Bibi in the house alone, but when Nastaran in 6 years old, her mother and older brothers came to live with them, bringing with them a world of new ideas and modern life. Bibi’s simple home became a microcosm of the rapidly changing clash of cultures that was Iran in the 1970s. Nastaran is pulled between the traditional upbringing of girls her age, and the call of the modern world. She establishes a special bond with Mohammed, her agate-eyed older brother, who introduces her to the world of ideas, literature, and art. It is the love and nurturing of her Bibi and Mohammed that guide her through the tangled maze of her tumultuous childhood. As her world changes, so does the political climate all over Iran. Mohammed can no longer protect her. She became swept up by the revolution and the fundamentalist Ayatollahs.

This is a dramatic story of struggle and survival, and readers will gain a deeper understanding of a country and its people about which many in the West know very little.

About the Author:

Nastaran Kherad was born in 1964 in Abadan, Iran, near the Persian Gulf. At age two, after her father's sudden death, she moved to Shiraz to live with her maternal grandmother, Bibi. After fleeing Iran at age twenty-two, she graduated from California State University, Long Beach. She is currently pursuing a doctorate in Contemporary Persian Studies and Exile Literature at the Universoty of Texas at Austin. This is her first book.

"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.