Jazmin’s Comments (group member since Jan 25, 2017)

Jazmin’s comments from the Our Traveling Shelf group.

I'm about 100 pages from being done with this book, but even with being busy with nursing school, I will finish it. I am really enjoying the book and reading about a different perspective of a different time in a different place that I don't know anything about.
It's interesting to read the parts where Nafisi talks about the veil and her refusal to wear it as part of the law, but that when it comes to respecting religion and tradition for some, she will wear the veil for them. She refuses to wear the veil even though she talks about her grandmother wearing it and trying to hide in the shadows because that is how her grandmother was raised and grew up. She respects those who choose to wear the veil and thinks that by making all the women wear it, the government is taking away the choice of all women, and taking away the religions aspect as well.
Nafisi also talks about her secret students rebellious ways of dressing under the cloak and how her own youth was different compared to her students. She had freedom to choose more such as school where as these young woman decisions are being decided by the man in their life.
I remember when I learned that Iran was not always the way it is today, that women used to have more choices, and I didn't really believe it. I didn't believe it because I don't understand how a society could go from allowing woman to wear what they want to forcing them to hide their bodies, it seems so backwards. And even though our society isn't going through that, it kind of feels like things could go that way by trying to bar woman from getting contraceptives and saying abstinence is the way woman don't get pregnant.
I think Nafisi is a brave woman who choose to not wear the veil but when she did decide to go back to school and wear it because she had to to teach, she made it obvious she did not agree with it and let her scarf "slip" on accident. Even though that itself could get her in trouble.
Like I said, I still have some pages left and I know she moves to America, I just don't know what happens to her to make the move.

This was a really interesting book. I read it in about two days and I really loved seeing a different point of view of not just why people leave their home countries, but how it affects their personal life. Enrique’s moms story of being in the Unites States was depressing because even though she worked hard to support her children, it never seemed to be enough for her to go back home. The thought that one can leave and come back later when they have saved enough money doesn’t sound hard, but life happens and it takes money to live out here as well. His resentment towards her I believed was unjustified because she didn’t abandoned them completely, she sent money for him to have a good life. But I also do believe she should have been more honest with them about her coming back and shouldn’t have given them hope.

Enrique’s attitude after he got in to the United States also annoyed me because for the first three or so years he was there, he was just having fun and not saving his money. He did get his wife and daughter up to the United States and he got his shit together, and I think it helped him understand his mother’s struggle better. Arriving in the United States wasn’t what Enrique visualized it would be, or being with his mother, but he is one of the few who did get through and he came to appreciate that fact.

Enrique’s journey is something that I don’t think about very often or even hear about. I know many Hispanics who have crossed the border in various way, I myself am one but I was a child and can’t take credit for the journey. I remember news clips about people moving up Mexico on trains and how the Mexican government was trying to handle it, but since my family is from Mexico, that is something I’m not familiar with. There is a good movie called Sin Nombre and it’s a story about a girl starting from Honduras going north and it was one of my first experiences with that kind of journey. Reading this book, I realized that it can be much harder and can take multiple times and is a very dangerous journey even as a young man.

What I really liked reading from the book was how Pollan described how the food we eat doesn't start at the harvesting but from the dirt. Make a plant grow faster and you lose nutrients, make a cow eat only fast grown seeds, and you lose the good fats as well. It has made me think that even though I do eat a lot of vegetables, I'm still not getting the same amount of nutrients as my ancestors did. I'm Hispanic and corn is a big part of my diet coming from tortillas, so when he said eat what my great-grandmother would recognize, I think I'm doing good on that part. But it did make me wonder how different the tortillas are made today compared to 100 years ago and if I'm eating unhealthy even though it is part of my tradition. Have some traditional foods also fallen into the trap?

Food is huge part of any culture and also a time that people get together and just relax and enjoy the food and each others company. So when Pollan started talking about Kellogg, the fact that Kellogg believe that food should not be enjoyed baffled me. I love food, and I love cooking new foods to try them out, so it seems crazy that anyone should take the approach of eating as a chore instead of an enjoyment. I also found it funny how Pollan described Europeans eating till they felt full vs. America where most people will eat till the food on the plate is gone. I didn't know it was an European thing and my friends make fun of me because I will state when I am full and eat no more, the leftovers get put away.

I really enjoyed the book and look forward to other things Pollan writes. Also, to be more aware of where food comes and how it's made is something I want to be more personally aware of.