Shabnam Curtis
Autor de My Persian Paradox: Memories of an Iranian Girl
Sobre El Autor
Créditos de la imagen: August Rodin Museum in Paris - next to the Thinker Credit Parnian Emami - Author's daughter
Obras de Shabnam Curtis
Etiquetado
Conocimiento común
- Nombre legal
- Shabnam Curtis
- Fecha de nacimiento
- 1972-09-06
- Género
- female
- Nacionalidad
- Iranian-American
- Lugar de nacimiento
- Iran - Tehran
- Biografía breve
- Shabnam Curtis the author of My Persian Paradox: Memories of an Iranian Girl was born and raised in Tehran, experiencing the Iranian Revolution of 1979 firsthand. In 2004 she immigrated to the United States, where she now works as a project performance analyst and in her free time reads works by such authors as James Baldwin, Azar Nafisi, and Isabel Allende. Shabnam teaches memoir writing workshops and is working on her second memoir. She lives in Sterling, Virginia, with her husband and two dogs.
Miembros
Reseñas
Estadísticas
- Obras
- 1
- Miembros
- 5
- Popularidad
- #1,360,914
- Reseñas
- 1
- ISBNs
- 2
My Persian Paradox: Memories of an Iranian Girl captures vivid impressions of the Iranian Revolution at a time when author Shabnam Shahmohammad was just seven years old, and moves from her earliest memories in the 1970s to modern times as she grows up witnessing the impact of the Islamic Revolution on her family.
As the regime becomes more repressive and challenges both her father's communist ideals and her mother's religious beliefs, Shabnam longs for a world and life not ruled by oppression, and marries at age nineteen in search of a more adventurous life.
The difference between Shabnam's choices and those of many Iranian women lies in her determination to realize her dreams against all odds: dreams that evolve into a bid for freedom under impossible circumstances. How does one dream of leaving the country when there is no means of departure? And what will happen when she is exposed to so much unfamiliar freedom in later years that she experiences a stark disconnect between her bitter childhood struggles and her much-changed world?
She reflects: "How could I not hate the male-dominant culture heavily influenced by Islamic dictatorship that had stolen those opportunities from me during the first thirty-one years of my life, filling my heart with guilt and shame? And yet, I counted days that I had no one to speak Farsi to. And yet, I cried when I heard the Iranian national anthem. And yet, I screamed happily when Iran’s soccer team made its way to the World Cup."
Many autobiographies by immigrants discuss struggles with repressive regimes, the bid for freedom made by coming to America, and cultural conflicts experienced upon arrival; but Shabnam's survey of past and present ideals and their impact on her ability to assimilate makes for an engrossing survey that goes beyond most immigrant stories.
Another difference between her story and others is her focus on not just coming of age and leaving her country, but living in it through regime changes. Her warm observations of her country, its people, and its culture offer simple reflections on daily life challenges and objectives: "I realized people in cities all over Iran longed for freedoms as simple as running a business without bribes."
The book ends with her departure from Iran: given the thought-provoking foreword about her contrasts between countries, readers may anticipate more of an emphasis on this part of her story in a second book, which will focus on her life in America as an immigrant.
My Persian Paradox is an outstanding synthesis of personal experience, social change, and political insights both in Iran and in the U.S. Its revelations about the emotional growth required to immigrate and reconcile two countries' cultures makes for an inviting, educational, and thoroughly engrossing account which is especially recommended for any library strong in immigrant experiences and the psychology of integration.… (más)