Iranian writers in exile

We often tend to think that exile is a relatively recent disease, yet expatriation is a rather old phenomenon in Persian literary history. Even before the 1979 revolution many writers had elected to leave their homeland, but the emergence of an Iranian literature in exile is limited to the past decade or so. The Iranian writers’ association (in exile) began its activities in Paris as of 1983, after the poet and director Seyyed Soltanpour, a member of the board committee of the Association, was executed in 1981. In truth, following the 1979 revolution, a great number of Iranian writers were either forced into exile or chose to leave their country and whether their literary career had been made before or after the revolution their consequent works were always marked by their separation from their home land. The Iranian Diaspora has been producing literature for some 3 decades. In the course of these years it has evolved from a strictly political, reactive literature that was mainly concerned with Iran, to what some experts call “post exilic” literature, a type of literature that discusses the state of exile itself. If you wish to read up on the subject you can refer to this link (http://sociologyofiran.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=834&Itemid=113), read an article entitled The Quince-Orange Tree, or Iranian Writers in Exile by Nasrin Rahimieh available for purchase here (http://www.jstor.org/pss/40147853) or stay up to date by visiting the Association for Iranian American writers’ website (http://www.iranianamericanwriters.org/featured-writers-overview-01.htm). Of the few hundreds of Iranian writers currently living and producing in Europe and North America, we have selected a few of our favourites below. 

	Things I've Been Silent About: Memories of a Prodigal Daughter by Azar Nafisi Azar Nafisi is a visiting professor and the director of the Dialogue Project at the Foreign Policy Institute of Johns Hopkins University. Before leaving Iran for the United States in 1997, she taught Western literature at the University of Tehran, the Free Islamic University, and the University of Allameh Tabatabai and was at some point expelled from the University of Tehran after refusing to wear the veil. In Things I've Been Silent About Azar Nafisi gives us a stunning memoir about growing up in iran, a powerful family portrait, and a vision of a distressed homeland.
	Censoring an Iranian Love Story by Shahriar Mandanipour The first of Shahriar Mandanipour novels to appear in English tells the story of an ambitious writer who is trying to write a love story that will bypass the censors’ inspection. He is writing the story of Dara and Sara, teenagers who are exploring sensual and emotional love in a nation that forbids contact of any sort between members of the opposing sex. Since he has known his censor, nicknamed Pofiry Petrovich, for a while, the writer can anticipate his objections, and as the story unfolds and the teenagers’ love story develops the writer auto censors paragraphs on end. Written with a dose of irony and humour, this book takes us into one of the world’s most fascinating yet least understood cultures.
	My Life as a Traitor: An Iranian Memoir by Zarah Ghahramani When she was twenty, Ghahramani was kidnapped from the street in Tehran and taken to infamous Evin Prison where criminals and political dissidents are held side by side. Her crime: political activism. She is sentenced to 30 days in jail. A number of beatings later she is left to her own devices somewhere in the countryside, having to find her way back home on her own. In this resonant memoir the author’s time in prison, scenes from a happy family life and a feisty adolescence interlace to illuminate the horror of a dictatorial regime.
	Tales of Two Cities: A Persian Memoir by Abbas Milani That more than one of the Iranian authors in exile we picked has at one time or another spent some time in an Iranian prison should come as no surprise. Milani’s memoir takes off when he is aged 15 and is sent to get an education in avant-garde San Francisco in the 60s. Returning home in the 70s after having immersed himself in politics he teaches in the National University until his anti-Shah conduct gets him imprisoned. This independent thinker’s memoir is a gripping mix of the personal and the political.
	Embracing The Infidel: Stories Of Muslim Migrants On The Journey West by Behzad Yaghmaian Yagmaian, a native Iranian, now living in the United States, writes of Muslim migrants traveling from the third world to the west looking to escape persecution and hoping to lead a better life. As research for his book the writer lived amongst Muslim migrants in Istanbul, Sofia, Athens, Patras, Paris, Calais, London and New York. He came back with tales of leaving home, of imprisonment and illegal travel. Living in tent cities, awaiting refugee status, these men and women’s stories are heartbreaking. "We stand like beggars in the food line... but we came here with dreams". They stand in between two worlds, belonging to neither.
	Women Without Men: A Novel of Modern Iran by Shahrnush Parsipur Another native Iranian to have been imprisoned for her views, Parsipur maintains her stance against Iranian gender politics in this novella. Women Without Men tells the story of 5 Iranian women: a prostitute, two unmarried women, a housewife, and a teacher. Each in her own way faces oppression, and all come to seek solace in the same transcendent garden located in Karaj, near Tehran.  Each finds her solace by rejecting men and marriage.
	The Age of Orphans: A Novel by Laleh Khadivi For  her debut novel, The Age of Orphans: A Novel, the first of a trilogy, Laleh Khadivi received the Whiting Writers’ award. The novel follows a Kurdish boy who is forced to join the Shah’s army after his people are slaughtered. Forced to betray his people, the newly named Reza Pejman Khourdi suppresses everything in him that is Kurdish. He goes on to make a quick climb in the Iranian military ranks eventually gaining an appointment to Kermanshah, a Kurdish region in the north of Iran. He marries a woman that lives in complete resentment of his roots and teaches her children to hate the Kurds. But in the end this new identity is nothing but a mask, and he grows into a broken man with no sense of belonging anywhere.