Lipstick Jihad: A Memoir of Growing Up Iranian in America and American in Iran

Running head : LIPSTICK JIHAD

A Book Review of Lipstick Jihad : A Memoir of Growing Up Iranian in America and American in Iran by Azadeh Moaveni

John Q . Student

Wright State University

A Book Review of Lipstick Jihad : A Memoir of Growing Up Iranian in America and American in Iran by Azadeh Moaveni

In Lipstick Jihad : A Memoir of Growing Up Iranian in America and American in Iran , Azadeh Moaveni has written a memoir of growing up first as an American girl born of Iranian parents in Southern California , then as [banner_entry_middle]

an adult working as a reporter for Time magazine while living in Tehran , Iran . Azadeh Moaveni tells of her jihad (struggle ) to develop from a self-centered , spoil girl into an adult with recognition that there are billions of others in the world , each of whom has opinions and beliefs that are equally as important as her own

While living among the community of expatriated Iranians and going to public schools , Azadeh Moaveni sometimes felt she was living a schizophrenic life : at home she was an Iranian daughter of upper middle class Iranians who had escaped Iran just prior to the 1979 revolution that overthrew the Shah of Iran and installed a Moslem Republic in its place . At school and at the mall she felt like an outsider because she was darker skinned and had a name no one could pronounce . She was ashamed of her parents , ashamed of being an Iranian because so many people remembered the taking of the American hostages and harbored resentment against Iranians . Since she felt out of place in California Azadeh Moaveni had built a fantasy of what her life Iran would be like it would be perfect . What she fails to realize is that she was really just a typical teenager no one feels they fit in while going through adolescence everyone is ashamed of his or her parents and other family members

Although the book isn ‘t formally divided into two sections , it is in fact divided in this manner . The first four chapters tell of her life growing up in Palo Alto and San Jose and her first few months working as a reporter . The second half of the book tells about her realization that the beliefs and opinions of others matters she moves from an egocentric worldview to a more realistic , balanced view of the world and her place in it

The first chapter “The Secret Garden ” Moaveni tells of her life in the United States living within the Diaspora community of Iranian expatriates . Her parents and others of that generation had been among the upper classes in Iran before the 1789 revolution . In Iran they had lived well , they had servants , and led a life separate from the vast majority of the people of Iran . In many ways they had absorbed the superior attitude of the British who lived and worked in Iran to exploit the considerable oil resources at the expense of the less privileged members of Iranian society… [banner_entry_footer]