It took years to publish Roya Hakakian's book "Journey from the Land of No: A Girlhood Caught in Revolutionary Iran" in Hebrew. The book, which came out in 2005 and got many raving reviews, tells the story of the Iranian Revolution as seen through the eyes of a Jewish girl who has to cope with the devastating impact on her community: As Ayatollah Khomeini gained strength and the country underwent a radical shift, the Jews refused to believe until the very last minute that they faced an existential danger. It won Elle Magazine's Best Nonfiction Book of 2004 and got translated into many languages.
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In the late 1980s, the Jewish community in Iran stood at roughly 100,000. As Hakakian notes, "the community may have yearned for the Land of Milk and Honey but still wanted to wake up every day in Tehran," to the Tehran of the good old days, when it used to be the pearl of the Middle East, proud of its educated people, its culture and the scents that would fill its bustling streets; the Tehran of the open-air markets, the youths who dream of freedom, creativity, and inspiration, the Tehran is that is now the land of no, where their dreams had been shattered and Shiite Islam has risen and cracked down on anyone who would not fall in line without question, a regime that forces women and girls to cover themselves in black garbs from head to toe.
This is what she wrote in the book: "I felt lost, not in the city but inside my clothes. Under my uniform, I was a blur. Where had Roya gone? I stopped, opened the top buttons of my uniform, and peeked inside: Where am I? I saw only darkness, a cave that led to a pair of denim cuffs, faded blue suede shoes, and dirty asphalt. Somewhere under that musty blackness, I was hidden. What wasted out of my eighteen-year-old collar was nothing exuberant or redolent of girlhood, but an eighteen-hundred-year-old stench of something gone bad. Very bad. And I realized that something was a girl gone bad."
Hakakian moved to the US in 1984, the year her parents decided to burn the journals she wrote, the book she liked to read, and the certificates of merit she got in 5th grade from the shah's Education Ministry. They also destroyed cassettes and vinyl records so that the Revolutionary Guards won't find an excuse to send her or them to jail. She recalls in her book how her father went out to the porch, stood behind her, and put both hands on her shoulders, whispering: "It is time to leave for America."
Speaking with Israel Hayom from her home, she sounds emotional when talking about the translation of her book to Hebrew, because many of her family members are in Israel. "I am sure that the readers in Israel will read the book differently than readers of other languages. Many who immigrated to Israel left memories and friends behind, on top of the story of the Islamic Revolution that made the country that I loved into Israel's bitter enemy."
Q: Most Iranian Jews refused to move to Israel until the revolution. Do you think they were less Zionist?
"I agree that Jews were happy in Iran, especially in the Tehran of the 1960s and 1970s. In those years they enjoyed a high socioeconomic status and were well integrated in society like never before. But here is an example: When I was 10, we traveled to Israel. When we got off the plane, my parents kneeled down and kissed the ground, to my amazement. My father was so proud of the place and status he had. I had never seen him so emotional. So I don't think Iran's Jews were less Zionist but they just could not sever their ties and start building a society from scratch after so many years of trying to integrate.
Hakakian weaves her experiences with delicate details. From the protests against the shah, through the underground protest signs and the cries of joy of the youths who led the revolution, and the realization that she and her family and friends and every other Jew were on borrowed time. This inner calm of describing how things were unfolding provides for a great depiction of the existential threat that hovered over every man and woman.
Lior B. Sternfeld, a historian of the modern Middle East at Penn State Univerity, says that what fascinated him was "the fact that Roya tells the story of the Jewish community in Iran in the first person." He notes that her writing has "vivid depictions of hesitations, fears and the honest attempt – even naive – to be part of the processes that befell the beloved country until the big let down."
Sternfeld adds that there are rarely any studies that provide an inside look into Jewish life before and during the revolution. Her book allows the reader to understand the urban geography of Tehran, feel the shadow of the trees, as well as smell and taste the city. From those descriptions, one can also understand why the Israeli officials faced such resistance when trying to convince Iranian Jews to make aliyah.
For many years he tried to convince Israeli publishers to have the book translated into Hebrew, but to no avail. "The book doesn't tell the story of a daring escape to the mountains as the Revolutionary Guards are in hot pursuit, and the big publishers said that this would never win over readers, despite becoming a bestseller in the US." But the years-long effort finally became successful thanks to the Alliance Center for Iranian Studies at Tel Aviv University, Penn State and Ktav Publishing House, whose publisher Moshe Menasheof made aliyah from Iran.
Hakakian says that her story "should be told because people don't really know what Iran was like [before the revolution]." Hakakian adds, "There are two groups: the first, those who are ignorant and think it is a backward country whose people are represented by the ayatollah regime; and the second groups, who think the shah was in fact run by the CIA and that the ayatollah's rise was just the reaction to the unwanted US meddling in the country's affairs."
She laments that this is the depiction that we see on television, but the people in Iran are not a monolithic group. They have their own thoughts and desires and seek life, and have become much more open, especially since the death of Khomeini. You can see that women no longer keep their hair hidden in many cases and people are just acting normally in private so that they can feel alive."
Q: Let me tell you a story that could reinforce your claim. Several years ago I met an Iranian film director who asked to speak with me in secret so that no one could see him with an Israeli. He told me that many students at Tehran University listen to Israeli radio and love Israeli singer Rona Kenan. I could not believe what I was hearing.
"This is the younger generation that keeps asking questions, and it won't accept things without questions like the previous question. This is also why I liked the show 'Tehran'. It has many young people who lead a normal life that everyone wants."
Q: The generation that led the Islamic Revolution are now parents. Will their children carry out another revolution?
"You don't need to hear my opinion, you can see for yourself how the students are taking to the streets and how they are embracing a more European lifestyle. For example, the birthrate is decreasing, and the number of people who attend the prayers is dwindling, which means things are changing. Just look at social media, sometimes people just drop the hidden language and speak out directly and without fear. Another example is that women who take off the head coverings at their first opportunity."
In 2019, two men in gray suits and black leather shoes knocked on Hakakian's door in a small suburb where she lives. "Mom, the FBI is here," her daughter shouted after opening the door. They told her that they have clear-cut intelligence showing that she is in the regime's sights.
Q: Are you a threat to the regime?
"Yes."
Q: In what way?
"As far as the ayatollahs are concerned, I am the enemy. The big enemy of the regime is what I am fighting for: making people heard, focusing on letting women live freely, and having them speak out. I challenge the regime."
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