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Gender, Culture, and Politics in the Middle East
Voices From Iran: The Changing Lives of Iranian Women
Rather than looking at the impact of economic domination and Western influence and intervention in Iran, Kousha (sociology, Macalester College, Saint Paul, Minnesota) profiles women to reveal their individual voices in all the complexities and simplicities they embody. She has not indexed her work. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
- GenresIran
200 pages, Paperback
First published November 1, 2002
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
December 16, 2013
Anymore it seems there are a lot of books about Iran, and especially about the women of Iran. Because for a lot of us, it's an intriguing topic. The women's lives there we can't even fathom sometimes as it's completely different from what we're used to in a culture. That being said, some of the books out there are better than the others.
Kousha interviews fifteen Iranian women from different walks of life (although the majority are educated) and how being a woman in Iran has played out for them. She explores their relationships with their mothers, fathers, husbands and their role in the workplace. She also asks whether or not they'd rather be born again as women or men and why.
To me a lot of the women she interviewed seemed to be from the same walks of life. A good many of them were able to work, some had pursued higher education, and all were at least given the autonomy to talk to an interviewer. And it's this last thing that I think shows that this book may not be reflective of the society as a whole (the author does say this is not a representational book of women in Iran). It's interesting to hear their stories and how they felt about their stations in life. Generally, most of them weren't happy with some aspects of their life but actually quite content in others.
The format of this book actually made it duller than it really was. Kousha spent a lot of time telling us what she was going to do in the book and after awhile I just wanted to get on to the interviews. But even those were broken up between speculations by Kousha about the women and their relationships. There also seemed to be a lot of repetition. We'd see a quote from one of the women and then just a few paragraphs later that same quote would be part of a larger chunk from the interview. The book was split into sections such as "Mothers and Daughters" and "Fathers and Daughters" and the conversations followed those lines.
This was an interesting book but there are plenty out there that are a little more engaging and show more of the women's stories.
Voices From Iran
Copyright 2002
244 pages
Review by M. Reynard 2013
More of my reviews can be found at www.ifithaswords.blogspot.com
Kousha interviews fifteen Iranian women from different walks of life (although the majority are educated) and how being a woman in Iran has played out for them. She explores their relationships with their mothers, fathers, husbands and their role in the workplace. She also asks whether or not they'd rather be born again as women or men and why.
To me a lot of the women she interviewed seemed to be from the same walks of life. A good many of them were able to work, some had pursued higher education, and all were at least given the autonomy to talk to an interviewer. And it's this last thing that I think shows that this book may not be reflective of the society as a whole (the author does say this is not a representational book of women in Iran). It's interesting to hear their stories and how they felt about their stations in life. Generally, most of them weren't happy with some aspects of their life but actually quite content in others.
The format of this book actually made it duller than it really was. Kousha spent a lot of time telling us what she was going to do in the book and after awhile I just wanted to get on to the interviews. But even those were broken up between speculations by Kousha about the women and their relationships. There also seemed to be a lot of repetition. We'd see a quote from one of the women and then just a few paragraphs later that same quote would be part of a larger chunk from the interview. The book was split into sections such as "Mothers and Daughters" and "Fathers and Daughters" and the conversations followed those lines.
This was an interesting book but there are plenty out there that are a little more engaging and show more of the women's stories.
Voices From Iran
Copyright 2002
244 pages
Review by M. Reynard 2013
More of my reviews can be found at www.ifithaswords.blogspot.com
January 2, 2011
The idea behind this book was interesting - using the personal accounts of over a dozen women to portray the variety of paths that the lives of women in Iran take. It is helpful to be reminded that everyone has a different reaction to their environment, and it was even more helpful that so much of the stories were relayed by quotes, giving depth and context to the experiences being remembered.
My issue with the book lies in its organization and syntax.
It is hard enough to keep the stories of fifteen women straight without them being all jumbled in together. I understood the author's process: to go point-by-point and insert the narratives that were best-suited with her claims. But this resulted in a disruption in flow as well as in information and the bigger picture. We're given these women's stories piece-by-piece, and the details given have been lumped by category and not by person. Unless the reader is sitting with a notepad and pen, reconstructing each woman's interview, she misses out on the whole story.
My issue with the book lies in its organization and syntax.
It is hard enough to keep the stories of fifteen women straight without them being all jumbled in together. I understood the author's process: to go point-by-point and insert the narratives that were best-suited with her claims. But this resulted in a disruption in flow as well as in information and the bigger picture. We're given these women's stories piece-by-piece, and the details given have been lumped by category and not by person. Unless the reader is sitting with a notepad and pen, reconstructing each woman's interview, she misses out on the whole story.
June 30, 2008
I was really disappointed with this book and avoided reading it for many days and then only skimmed the last half. The author really dominates the book throughout. She talked for the first 50 pages or so about herself and her research and blah blah and then even when she lets the women she interviews speak, she follows their quotes up by paraphrasing what they said. I felt she presented the women's stories in such a way that they weren't even that interesting. I was especially disappointed in this book after reading the 1950s oral history which was so well done. I don't know a lot about life in Iran and didn't lean much from this book :/
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews