Be Careful What You Wish For

I finished Journey from the Land of No. The revolution happened and everyone was very excited. They all thought it was the greatest thing until the new government, the Muslim brotherhood made new, devastating rules. Roya and other Jewish people were segregated in ways similar to those during the holocaust, and 1950's America. Their teacher spoke of the deepest sin, one that cannot be erased, the showing of a woman's hair. That seemed really strange to me; I just don't understand it. Things that made Roya hate The Shah turned out to be a lie after he had been killed. Roya's best friend's life is torn apart. Her uncle dies of grief, her brother dies of war, her sister is imprisoned, and her mother goes insane. She tells Roya that she has to stay is Iran, though, because she is a Muslim. I see some deep parallels between this revolution, and the French revolution. Both wanted to take away the monarchys, and it concluded in a terrible amount of unnecessary violence. Also, this seems like it is happening today. The people of Libya want to take down the evil dictator Gaddafi, but who knows what will happen if he is gone. Will the Muslim brotherhood take over? If so, the consequences could be as disastrous as they were in Iran. This novel gave insights to parts of these people's lives that I didn't know about. The way they value poetry so much is perplexing. They've made a god out of it, and the best poet seems to be the most pious man. The author only allowed some information to be told, and I'm interested in what else happened, especially because of her dedication: "Between 1982 and 1990 an unknown number of Iranian women political prisoners were raped on the eve of their executions by guards who alleged that killing a virgin was a sin in Islam".