Writing From The Body

Sex in the Time of Mullahs operates through dichotomies, starting with the opening line, "You came for the politics, but you will stay for the nightlife" (55).  The outside narrator must be brought into the "hazy Tehran night" "behind closed doors" (55) to witness this nightlight.  Davar, the narrator's friend, leads the narrator and the reader into this seemingly subversive scene of exposure, of "shimmering arms" (56) and "bare-heads" (57), of free love.  But it is not that at all, the narrator argues.  These scenes are a masquerade, similar to the real masquerade party she later attends, where every behavior is in some way or another a response to the oppression of the Islamic Republic.  This nightlife is not the sexual revolution Davar and so many others claim it to be. The tension is incredible--we flash between Davar's palpable excitement and the narrator's more wary perception, between the illusion of subversion ...

Many of the essays in this collection are about Iranian identity (how it has changed, what it has become), and that theme continues to be thread through "Sex in the Time of the Mullahs" and "Misreading Kundera in Tehran."  Though Azadeh Moaveni and Nagmeh Zarbafian discuss different subject matters, they both discuss and unravel modern Iranian identity.  Structurally, they also both use their own experiences to draw on larger concepts. In "Sex in the Time of the Mullahs," Moaveni recounts her experience attending a secret party in Tehran.  She described how Iran is experiencing "a sexual revolution behind closed doors," in which Iranian youths engage in sexual activity as well as drinking and doing drugs - in general, activities for which they would be arrested outside of their homes.  Moaveni relates that this partying, done in private, helps to restore these Iranians' "sense of autonomy" and display their "total disregard f...

I felt like reading the essay Sex, in the time of Mullahs was very similar to the writing prompt given to class in writing about the dark side. The tone of this piece was successfully detailing the subversive Iranian culture that bloomed from the over bearing dictatorship that ruled Iran. This also gave the reader a chance to look at how some of the inner workings of Iranian culture let out steam from failed revolutions. Moaveni details this deviant culture that arose in response to the cultural pinnings that were oppressing women and men and turned into something that would put Amsterdam to shame, as Moaveni puts it. Though, there still seems to be an attending to some of the rules of Iranian culture because of a man getting kicked out of a party for having no shame “the second course, feeling like a second choice, declaimed loudly that he had no shame (an altogether more serious charge in Persian than in English) and had him swiftly removed from the party” (Moaveni 57).The dark si...

Arya Samuelson What immediately stood out to me about “Sex in the Time of Mullahs” was the author’s tone. Incisive, frequently derisive, and absolutely certain of the bold claims she was making. Moaeveni describes two parties, singling out particular people and details that serve as launching boards for her larger analysis about the banality of the Iranian party scene that believes itself to be so revolutionary. Describing her friend Davar and his gravitation towards a “young divorcee,” Moaeveni writes: “She had thick wrists and a cartoonlike beauty, as if she had been drawn by a talented child. He enjoyed half an hour of small talk, working his way toward possible conquest, toward the consummation of an act that would, however briefly, restore his sense of autonomy, display his total disregard for the regime’s tattoos, allow him to the say to the world, or to himself: ‘I am not just another twenty-five year old Iranian making a $300-a-month salary that I can’t get married on,...

The Light and the Dark Sex in the Time of Mullahs beautifully captures this week's writing theme of "the light and the dark" as we venture into the secret nightlife of Tehran, the parties in its baghs. Although on the surface, Tehran may seem depressing and hopeless with its lack of jobs and strict control over the personal lives of its citizens, underneath, there is a wild party scene where people openly swap sexual partners, artists congregate, and people feel free to dress how they please. Initially, we feel hopeful that everyday Iranians have found a way to overcome their totalitarian government. Perhaps they have found a way to let their culture thrive and bloom.  But then we see that this totalitarianism taints everything, even these freewheeling parties. For example, reformists who bring girlfriends haven't actually broadened their perspectives on women's rights, they just relish the opportunity to have younger girlfriends. The parties don't actual...

Lisa Patten November 13th, 2017 My Sister, Guard Your Veil; My Brother, Guard Your Eyes   -   Lila Azam Zanganeh, editor “The Stuff That Dreams Are Made Of” -   Azar Nafisi I found the reading this week to be compelling, painful and inspiring to read.   It reminded me again of how much I have to learn about other cultures and other voices. In “The Stuff That Dreams Are Made Of,” Azar Nafisi combines memoir, journalistic technique and metaphor to describe the devastating impact that the political, social and intellectual suppression of women has had on Iranian women.    Drawing from lessons learned in her own life, she exhorts Iranian women to resist the government oppression by preserving and strengthening their imagination and intellect, thereby holding onto their own unique identity in a society that demands uniformity and submission. In this piece Nafisi tells us a parable about light and dark, between that which is out in th...