Women Write Iran

"Nima Naghibi’s familiarity and eloquence on the subject of Iranian women’s textual cultures is seen throughout Women Write Iran, opening up a clear discussion of human rights and humanitarianism."—Gillian Whitlock, University of Queensland

"Long awaited and truly welcomed, Women Write Iran offers an erudite analysis of some of the auto/biographical works produced by Iranian women in diaspora in post-revolutionary Iran. Nima Naghibi takes her reader on a journey into these works, showing their complexity not only in their own right, but in relation to their reception, demanding a more nuanced and historically situated approach from readers."—Shahla Talebi, Arizona State University

"A probing investigation of these life narratives that transcend generic boundaries to include memoirs, documentary films, prison testimonials, and graphic novels."—The Muslim World Book Review

"Naghibi’s book is a new starting point for the way scholars and readers could approach these texts from the angle of human connection and empathy."—Biography

"Women Write Iran is a meaningful contribution to multiple fields including women’s and gender studies, diaspora studies, Iranian studies, Trauma studies, and human rights studies. Naghibi approaches these subdisciplines in a way that mutually illuminates them."—Contemporary Women’s Studies

Women Write Iran is the first full-length study on life narratives by Iranian women in the diaspora. Nima Naghibi investigates auto/biographical narratives across genres—including memoirs, documentary films, prison testimonials, and graphic novels—and finds that they are tied together by the experience of the 1979 Iranian revolution as a traumatic event and by a powerful nostalgia for an idealized past.

Naghibi is particularly interested in writing as both an expression of memory and an assertion of human rights. She discovers that writing life narratives contributes to the larger enterprise of righting historical injustices. By drawing on the empathy of the reader/spectator/witness, Naghibi contends, life narratives offer the possibilities of connecting to others and responding with an increased commitment to social justice.

The book opens with an examination of how the widely circulated video footage of the death of Neda Agha-Soltan on the streets of Tehran in June 2009 triggered the articulation of life narratives by diasporic Iranians. It concludes with a discussion of the prominent place of the 1979 revolution in these narratives. Throughout, the focus is on works that have become popular in the West, such as Marjane Satrapi’s best-selling graphic novel Persepolis. Naghibi addresses the significant questions raised by these works: How do we engage with human rights and social justice as readers in the West? How do these narratives draw our attention and elicit our empathic reactions? And what is our responsibility as witnesses to trauma, atrocity, and human suffering?

Nima Naghibi is associate professor of English at Ryerson University in Toronto. She is the author of Rethinking Global Sisterhood: Western Feminism and Iran (Minnesota 2007).

Contents

Introduction. Righting the Past
1. Claiming Neda
2. Human Rights, Humanitarianism, and Empathic Witnessing: Prison Memoirs
3. Feeling Nostalgic, Feeling Guilty: Remembering Iran in Documentary Film
4. Repetitions of the Past: Marjane Satrapi and Intergenerational Memory
5. Revolution, Nostalgia, and Memory in Diasporic Iranian Memoirs
Conclusion. Testimonial Life Narratives
Acknowledgments
Notes
Bibliography
Index