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Behind the Veil An American Woman's Memoir of the 1979 Iran Hostage Crisis by Debra Johanyak 258 pp., 6 x 9
Download a -discussion guide- for your reading group Interested in having Debra Johanyak speak to your group? Download this -brochure- Instructors: Interested in a faculty guide or a PowerPoint presentation for your class? -Contact us- |
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Johanyak recounts the events of her life in Iran, drawing on her own journal and family letters, as well as public news sources. Against a background of increasing political and religious tensions, she gives the reader vivid pictures of the world she experienced there, in good times and bad—tribal customs in a village wedding, sandstorms, the warmth of the large Iranian family she married into, the threatening pressure of Islamic fundamentalists. Coming face to face with dramatic changes in Iran's government and society, Johanyak must also confront her own identity. For anyone who has ever wanted to look behind the veil of media imagery and see life in Iran before and after the 1979 revolution, Debra Johanyak's book offers a clear, intimate, and unflinching view of a culture in conflict, as she comes to terms with her religious faith, political views, and feminist values. Behind the Veil chronicles a dangerous time in Iran and America's shared history, and brings us along on the spiritual and intellectual pilgrimage of one Midwestern woman finding her way in a volatile world. In Behind the Veil, Debra Johanyak weaves the personal with the historical in fascinating detail. Through her own story, a Midwestern woman married to an Iranian man and living in Iran during the hostage crisis, Johanyak provides the reader with sharp insights into similarities as well as differences between the two cultures. The memoir offers a thoughtful perspective on cultural chasms and the bridges we could build to conquer them. —Nahid Rachlin, author of Persian Girls, a memoir, and Jumping Over Fire, a novel. Debra Johanyak, a young American wife with an Iranian husband, gives a moving account of her experiences in the early days of the Iranian revolution in 1979. She not only vividly recounts the fears that the hostage crisis ignited in her, but also fondly recalls the deep bonds she formed with her Iranian in-laws. Elegiac and informative, the work is essential reading for anyone interested in gaining a better understanding about Iran and its people. —Guity Nashat, professor of Middle Eastern history, University of Illinois at Chicago |
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Dr. Debra
Johanyak was
raised in Akron, Ohio. Her graduate studies included a year in Shiraz,
Iran, where she held a teaching assistantship and witnessed the 1979
Iran hostage crisis. Debra began her professional career as an English
instructor, and later, as an assistant professor at Kent State
University before coming to the University of Akron Wayne College,
where she currently is a professor of English. In addition to having
her book, Shakespeare's
World
published by Prentice Hall in 2004, several of her short stories and
dozens of her articles have appeared in various literary magazines and
journals. |
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