A little over one week remains until I head to Turkey for a trip, and I am eager to see how dad is using various workers in that country! I am in the process of reading four different books on the countries of Turkey and Iran in addition to Islam. I just completed a book called The Soul of Iran: A Nation’s Journey to Freedom by Afshin Molavi. The author currently holds a Ph.D. from Harvard University, reports on Iran for Reuters, is a columnist for The Washington Post, and contributor of several publications. He did an excellent job of integrating cultural, political, economic, and societal aspects of Iran in this book. Since I have to incorporate some of my reflection on this in my paper, I figured I could write a blog post about it and share with you as well! While this is not an official review of the book itself, I hope that some things I will point out here will whet your interest in exploring the history of Iran and how it continues to struggle for freedom.
This book was written from an Iran-American’s perspective on how the country has changed since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. In spite of the media’s and Tehran’s negative portrayal of America and how every Iranian chants “Death to America” and “Death to Israel,” Molavi challenges this perspective by demonstrating how many Iranians holds a favorable perspective of the West because of its promise for freedom, democracy, and economic prosperity. The majority of Iranians are frustrated by the government’s failure to provide them economic relief in the aftermath of the Revolution. The country is now faced with widespread poverty and spiraling inflation on basic goods. According to Molavi, there is a great economic disparity between the elite (government officers) and the poor. Consequently, many young Iranians choose to take three paths in their lives: join a morality police group called Basiji that are heavily favored by the government, join a pro-democracy reform movement with hopes of reforming the government by force (they have faced several violent clashes by the Basiji and pro-government forces called the Revolutionary Guard), or live quietly and hope to obtain a visa for a better life in Europe and America.
Corruption permeates the economy and government, and it is not surprising at all that many young Iranians are emigrating out of their homeland, often against their own will.
Various shrines of fallen war heroes or imams dot the landscape of the entire country. Many Iranians will make pilgrimages to those shrines to pray and ask the deceased to help him or her to, for example, obtain a visa, continue to give good health to his or her family, or to do well in college entrance exams. Molavi recorded some pilgrimages to other shrines for various imams who were instrumental in Islam and considered important to the Shi’ites, one of two sects of Muslims (the second one is known as Sunnis), and several poets that Iranians love. He uses those trips to recount the history of Iran and what transpired since the death of Cyrus the Great. There is even a shrine commemorating young Iranian soldiers who died in the bloody Iraq-Iran War of 1980-1988. The government painted this event as a religious warfare and convinced many young Iranians to fight for the sake of their religion and in defense of their homeland. While many war veterans journey to this shrine, a special permission must be obtained before visiting the shrine. It is located a few minutes away from the Iraq-Iran border, and destroyed Iraqi tanks still don the landscape around the shrine as a permanent monument of what took place in that area. Interestingly enough, an Iranian war veteran will do well in this country.
The author in this book casts Iran in a different light, one not often shown by the media. If Iran is ever to achieve true democracy and representative government, many more lives will be lost and blood will be shed. The journey will be a long and rocky road with many obstacles, and it will require a substantial amount of work on the behalf of its citizens. But the desire for freedom, since the days of Cyrus the Great, and democracy, impelled due to the West’s economic prosperity, remains in the hearts and dreams of many Iranians. After all, that’s what propelled the 1979 Islamic Revolution, and the aftermath of the revolution turned sour because of those who filled the vacuum in the government.
This is available in Kindle as well: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003V1WWS8/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=deafsemin-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B003V1WWS8
I give this book a four-star rating for those who are interested in studying the history of the Middle East, especially Iran. This book is interesting for me because many of people that I will encounter in Istanbul, Turkey will be coming from Iran. The city is considered as a place where people will come to make a determination on whether to continue on to Europe or return to Iran.
The Soul of Iran: A Nation's Journey to Freedom (9780393325973): Afshin Molavi: Books
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