Locked Up
A review by Nikki Keddie
Esfandiari's profoundly moving memoir goes beyond the limited story suggested in its subtitle to interweave a vivid autobiography and a brief history of Iran before and after the 1978-79 revolution. Potential readers should not be put off by fear of a depressing tale of horror; this is, above all, a story of faith -- in the human capacity to withstand mistreatment and in what people working together against tyranny can accomplish. Born to a prominent Iranian agronomist and his Austrian wife, Esfandiari grew up in relative privilege. She attended college in Vienna and took a job at a liberal Tehran newspaper. But when the Shah imposed a new editor, she left her position as a reporter to work for the Women's Organization of Iran. During the revolution that tore the country apart, her family fled Iran, and she eventually became director of the Middle East program at Washington, D.C.'s Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, where she convened discussions on Iran and the...
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