Journey from the Land of No

I started Journey from the Land of No by Roya Hakakian yesterday. The story starts when the girl is about 12 years old and tells of her religious background. Her family is Jewish in a Muslim country so it is difficult even though they live in a Jewish neighborhood.  Her father is a well respected poet and two of her brothers speak out against the oppression of The Shah. All her brothers and her uncle are shipped out of Iran. Her uncle goes to Israel because he fears when he goes to court, he will be sentenced to death. Then Hakakian portrays the hardships that women have to face with a beautiful passage:
"Motherhood was a melancholy affair. Mothers were martyrs [...] no one expected less of them. Men suffered and sacrificed themselves only in poetry for the sake of love. In real life, women were the ones to perform those legendary acts."
Farah, her cousin, isn't in love with her suitor but she is forced to marry him because when she tells her dad of her desire, he throws a glass jar at her and she starts to convulse in an epileptic seizure. When Hakakian's uncle wants to be married, his family disapproves and a chess game unfolds. He tells his mother that he has to marry the woman of his dreams, or he will convert to Islam. Then she grabs a knife and points it at her heart, saying she will thrust it if he is married to a Muslim. Consequently, he gets in a car wreck and has to flee the country. It's a cycle of destruction. Hints of the story’s plot rise with Roya and her best friend’s siblings. They are both engaged in the disapproval of the Shah and SAVAK. A childhood story’s meaning is finally revealed to Roya and she is mesmerized.