Fatemeh Keshavarz

A quick touch of Irani cultural history and what is currently happening there with books and culture. I enjoyed getting a different perspective on what is happening in Irani culture and literature. This was a positive look at what has happened centuries ago as well as the present. I liked being introduced to writers who lived centuries ago and those who write today. I enjoyed the look at Fatemeh Keshavarz's family and the vignettes she shared of her uncles. She brought light to the topic instead of the negative which we are usually given. Well written. It made me think. I would like to read some of the ancient authors and today's Irani authors.… (plus d'informations)

Reading Lolita in Tehran was a bestselling memoir about a professor of Western literature and her life in Iran before and after the revolution. But did it give us an accurate view of Iran? In Jasmine and Stars, Fatemeh Keshavarz argues that it did not. Within the pages, Keshavarz, also a literature professor, offers her positive experiences growing up in Iran, of contemporary, admirable Islamic men, and examples if the wealth of art being currently produced in Islam in an effort to break down the stereotypes and inaccuracies she feels were presented in Reading Lolita in Tehran. Keshavarz has some very solid, valid arguments, but some are weak. For example, she features a chapter on the Iranian novel Women without Men by Shahrnush Parsipur to show how alive and vibrant the novel is in Iran. However, that work was censored in Iran and the author was imprisoned for it twice and is now a political refugee in the United States. Like Reading Lolita in Tehran, some of the work reads like memoir while other parts are very academic, even more so than Reading Lolita in Tehran. This prevents the work from reaching the same readers Lolita in Tehran did. Still, multiple perspectives are only beneficial and give us a more complete picture of a place, people, or an event.… (plus d'informations)

This is an essential read for anyone who's ever heard anything about Iran (or even the Middle East). Keshavarz shows the beauty and humanity of a country behind the negative images flooded in the media and memoirs like "Reading Lolita in Tehran." She introduces the reader to an unknown world — the world of Iranian literature — and she deconstructs portrayals of Iran so that the reader is left with an analytical framework for viewing the world. The book is readable, fascinating, and engaging. It's sprinkled with poetry and stories from Iran. I'd recommend it to anyone.… (plus d'informations)

Silly and fluffy at best, and dangerously optimistic about the state of Iran and Islam ar worst, this book is still worth a read for those who have already completed the work it purports to refute. The author conveniently ignores many of the more troubling aspects of Shiite Islam, blaming it all on culture and forgetting that much of what she claims isn't true Islam can be found in the Quran and Hadith. Her picture is much too rosy to be realistic, and I hope that no one reads her work alone and without a proper context and understanding. In her efforts to portray Iranians as normal human beings, she falls into factual inaccuracy.… (plus d'informations)