Jil's Reviews > Things I've Been Silent About

It was so personal as well as informative. How she articulates her experiences turning to persian and classical literature combining it with the evocation of a past Iran during a time of revolution and change creates a beautiful narrative style. Also the people in her life are described as characters in a novel. It helps to gain an access to a deeply personal reflection on woman’s choices, the events that shaped her life and how she found inspiration for a different kind of woman’s life in stories by persian writers such as Forough Farrokhzad, Shahrnoosh Parsipur and in stories by western writers such as Charlotte Bronte or Emily Dickinson. The way she integrates moments in twentieth-century Iranian history especially the islamic revolution and presents it through persian literature (through Shahnameh) shows the price a family pays for freedom in a country beset by political upheaval - and how it can also be a ‚constant resistance against the tyranny of man and of time‘.

A quote from this book that describes todays situation: This was about the freedom of choice. No regime, no figure of authority, had the right to tell a woman how to relate or not to relate to God.
This book is still relevant to this day and something I will start recommending to everyone.