{"id":1204,"date":"2009-03-07T22:36:40","date_gmt":"2009-03-08T03:36:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/s265039441.onlinehome.us\/philpaine\/?p=1204"},"modified":"2018-08-09T22:39:20","modified_gmt":"2018-08-10T02:39:20","slug":"17258-sattareh-farman-farmaian-dona-munker-daughter-of-persia-a-womans-journey-from-her-fathers-harem-through-the-islamic-revolution","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/?p=1204","title":{"rendered":"17258. (Sattareh Farman Farmaian &<\/span> Dona Munker) Daughter of Persia: A Woman\u2019s Journey From Her Father\u2019s Harem Through the Islamic Revolution"},"content":{"rendered":"

This auto\u00adbi\u00adog\u00adra\u00adphy writ\u00adten (with some assis\u00adtance) by an upper-class Iran\u00adian woman is both a pro\u00adfound\u00adly mov\u00ading per\u00adson\u00adal doc\u00adu\u00adment and a per\u00adfect intro\u00adduc\u00adtion to the his\u00adto\u00adry of Iran in the 20th cen\u00adtu\u00adry. Born in the harem of a mem\u00adber of the Qajar nobil\u00adi\u00adty, Sattareh Far\u00adman Farmi\u00adan lived through the dis\u00adso\u00adlu\u00adtion of the old King\u00addom, the reigns of the two Pahle\u00advi Shahs (the first, a sol\u00addier ran\u00addom\u00adly cho\u00adsen and installed by the British, the sec\u00adond, installed by the CIA<\/span>), and final\u00adly through the first stages of the Rev\u00ado\u00adlu\u00adtion of the Aya\u00adtol\u00adlahs. Her cho\u00adsen ambi\u00adtion, to build a mod\u00adern school to train social work\u00aders to improve the lot of the aver\u00adage Iran\u00adian, brought her into con\u00adtact with the famous and pow\u00ader\u00adful, but lit\u00adtle per\u00adson\u00adal gain. Her loy\u00adal\u00adties lay with the hand\u00adful of peo\u00adple who wished for a demo\u00adc\u00adra\u00adt\u00adic, con\u00adsti\u00adtu\u00adtion\u00adal monar\u00adchy and a self-direct\u00aded mod\u00adern\u00adiza\u00adtion. These hopes were con\u00adtin\u00adu\u00adal\u00adly dashed, as first one tyrant, then anoth\u00ader, and anoth\u00ader came into pow\u00ader, most\u00adly through the inter\u00adfer\u00adence of the Great Pow\u00aders. Her work put her in the posi\u00adtion to observe much, and her nat\u00adur\u00adal spunk and intel\u00adli\u00adgence gave depth to her obser\u00adva\u00adtions. Any\u00adone bound by the pre-con\u00adcep\u00adtions of both Islam and Iran that pre\u00advail in the North Amer\u00adi\u00adcan or Euro\u00adpean press will find many sur\u00adpris\u00ades. The sub\u00adtle\u00adty with which she com\u00admu\u00adni\u00adcates her atti\u00adtude toward the Unit\u00aded States, where she stud\u00adied, and whose soci\u00adety and cus\u00adtoms she deeply admired, but which installed and financed a bru\u00adtal tyran\u00adny in her home\u00adland, are par\u00adtic\u00adu\u00adlar\u00adly fas\u00adci\u00adnat\u00ading. Few books I\u2019ve read have put across this par\u00adtic\u00adu\u00adlar type of dilem\u00adma so strik\u00ading\u00adly. One brief pas\u00adsage would shock a young read\u00ader today. She met, and fell in love with a young Ben\u00adgali study\u00ading film direct\u00ading in Los Ange\u00adles. This was in 1948. The cou\u00adple went to L.A. City Hall to get a mar\u00adriage license:<\/span><\/p>\n

There, the clerk on duty refused to issue one until Arun pro\u00adduced a pass\u00adport to show that he was a for\u00adeign nation\u00adal and not, as the clerk sus\u00adpect\u00aded from his dark com\u00adplex\u00adion, an Amer\u00adi\u00adcan Negro try\u00ading to mar\u00adry a white woman. Furi\u00adous and shak\u00aden at this indig\u00adni\u00adty, I had to force myself to remem\u00adber that our hap\u00adpi\u00adness would not depend on how big\u00adot\u00aded peo\u00adple judged our union.<\/span><\/p>\n

Just as mov\u00ading are her mus\u00adings on the fail\u00adings of her own soci\u00adety, and on the trav\u00ades\u00adty of her sin\u00adcere faith when the mul\u00adlahs came into pow\u00ader. All is woven togeth\u00ader by the sto\u00adry of her fam\u00adi\u00adly. Her moth\u00ader and father, dif\u00adfer\u00adent in char\u00adac\u00adter, but both of them admirable and lov\u00ading in her eyes, are rarely absent from the nar\u00adra\u00adtive. Ira\u00adni\u00adans, she says, trust nobody but their own fam\u00adi\u00adlies. She felt that Iran\u2019s weak\u00adness was a short\u00adfall of trust, in both pub\u00adlic and pri\u00advate life, but ulti\u00admate\u00adly, it seems that her fam\u00adi\u00adly was the only thing that she could rely on, or trust. So, while the book ends on a note of loss and fail\u00adure, it does not end in bitterness<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This auto\u00adbi\u00adog\u00adra\u00adphy writ\u00adten (with some assis\u00adtance) by an upper-class Iran\u00adian woman is both a pro\u00adfound\u00adly mov\u00ading per\u00adson\u00adal doc\u00adu\u00adment and a per\u00adfect intro\u00adduc\u00adtion to the his\u00adto\u00adry of Iran in the 20th cen\u00adtu\u00adry. Born in the harem of a mem\u00adber of the \u2026<\/p>\n

Read more \u00bb<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[946,15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1204","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-b-reading","category-br-reading-2009"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1204","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1204"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1204\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8067,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1204\/revisions\/8067"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1204"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1204"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1204"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}