I recently red Honeymoon in Tehran by Azadeh Moaveni. This book is an amazing memoir in the sense it’s so rich with data about a way of life that the Western world seldom gets to see.
Azadeh’s profession is clear from the start. She’s a reporter for Time Magazine. Because she’s a reporter, she takes the time to write clearly and really gives an on the ground approach. Plus one of the things I really like, she takes the time to talk about her approach to work.
So I will admit I picked up this book specifically to learn more about life in Iran. I actually had her first memoir in my hand and I was going to buy that one. But in the end, I put down Lipstick Jihad in favor to see what marriage is like since that’s one aspect I never got to see from my previous dips into Iranian culture (mainly graphic books by Marjane Satrapi).
This book is so complete in the things I was looking for: the politics especially how they changed with the election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, marriage and courting a husband, and women’s views about having to wear the scarves and the conservative dress. Plus it included so many facts I didn’t really realize: the economic hardship despite having so many educated people especially women, the fact dogs are shunned as a pet and how the overinflated prices for weddings happen there as well. Although I wasn’t surprised that this book ended up with some heartache and leaving the country when things changed.
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