The Other Side of Silence: A Memoir of Exile, Iran, and the Global Women’s Movement

Iranian activist Afkhami (Women in Exile) delivers a moving account of her advocacy for Iranian women’s rights. After her parents divorced, 14-year-old Afkhami and her mother moved to California in 1956. In 1967, she returned to Iran as a wife and mother and landed a teaching job at the National University of Iran, a position she left several years later to head the Women’s Organization of Iran, growing its membership to one million women by 1977. Later, as the minister for women’s affairs, Afkhami passed a package that provided paid maternity leave and workplace childcare, but the violent demonstrations of Ayatollah Khomeini’s followers rocked Afkhami’s conviction. “We had contributed to the unrest by helping to raise the consciousness of Iranian women,” she writes. In 1978, she was named an enemy of the Iranian Revolution and began life as a political exile, going on to organize panels and speak at global women’s events, including the 1995 UN Fourth World Conference on Women. Afkhami’s complexities and passion make even the driest policy discussions captivating. The result is a thought-provoking addition to the international women’s rights shelf. (Nov.)