Saïdeh Pakravan paints a compassionate yet incomplete picture of Iran’s lost generation.

Set prior to the Arab Spring’s’ twitter revolutions’, Saïdeh Pakravan’s novel Azadi captures for a western readership the complex attitudes and emotions that have been tearing Iranian society apart since the 1979 islamic revolution. It highlights the political and historical awakening of young Iranians since the 2009 upheavals that followed Iran’s deemed fraudulent presidential elections which saw the emergence of a Green Movement seeking freedom under the Islamic Republic through democratic reform rather than regime change. This internal evolution of the minds across Iran’s social divide are the seeds of freedom the author believes will one day inevitably lead to change in Iran.

The story is told through the eyes of several protagonists whose lives will be for ever affected in the days and months following the regime’s brutal crackdown. During these momentous events, the central character Raha escapes arrest a first time when Hossein, an anti riot policeman, takes pity of the attractive young woman. At the height of the demonstrations, Raha once again joins her friends in the streets but is rearrested. Her ordeal in detention unfolds like a living nightmare during which she is beaten and gang raped by three sadistic male interrogators. Released thanks to Hossein’s connections, the once carefree student who dreams of being an architect has lost her innocence but not her strong will to seek justice. Supported by her family and a competent female lawyer, her case turns into a national scandal. The sharia based judiciary is prompted to severely condemn (by death and imprisonment) Raha’s torturers in a bid to preserve both domestically and internationally the judiciary’s own tarnished image as ‘independent’ of the political apparatus. 

At the heart of this drama is the birth of a platonic relationship between two youngsters with diametrically opposed backrounds. Raha, a student in architecture, is a product of a secular upbringing imbued with social consciousness. The deeply religious Hossein joined the anti riot police thanks to his uncle and lives with his crippled brother, an embittered Iran-Iraq war veteran.  Hossein’s inner transformation is not unlike characters depicted in dystopian litterature such as Guy Montag in Ray Bradbury’s Farenheit 451 or Winston Smith in George Orwell’s 1984. The realisation that he is merely an instrument of repression at odds with the godly values he is expected to safeguard will mark the beginning of his awakening. Raha’s tragic ordeal is what ultimately draws both characters to one another prompting each to question their own beliefs.

Other characters seem trapped in their own parallel worlds. Such is the case of the fatalistic uncle Djamchid seen as exiled in his own country, of Raha’s boyfriend Kian chastised by his workaholic surgeon mother for seeking escapism in Hollywood stereotypes or of Kian’s opportunistic aunt Pari who compensates her loyalty to the regime by throwing lavish parties in her luxurious home where alcohol is discreetly served despite the dubious presence of regime officials. Even the visiting scholar Gita, torn between her American and Iranian roots, discovers Iran for the first time in four decades very much like the L.A. expat comedians lured back by nostalgia or a gullible belief that change is imminent. The parents remoteness towards the electoral brouhaha hints to a cautious tolerance enabling their children’s personal political awakening, but it also betrays their own enduring disillusionment and perhaps guilt. The great freedoms most protagonists enjoy in their family circle contrasts with the deprivation they face when crossing the rubicon into the outside world. The presence of the morality police is a stark reminder of the repressively totalitarian state as when examining Raha’s appearance before the trial or in the fear induced in couples holding hands or in the unexplained disappearance of Raha’s teacher suspected of anti-government activities. 

The novel’s strength resides in authentically capturing the general atmosphere of defiance which took the country by storm and became known as the ‘Green Revolution’. Numerous clips and news reports like Neda’s death which went viral on the internet and social media serve as dramatic backdrop to the novel. The reader like Azadi’s protagonists plunges into this cyber realm as if trapped in a parallel world of it’s own making in conflict with an unmitigated reality. Acknowledged feedbacks from lawyers Mehrangiz Kar and Arash Sigarchi have proved useful in plausibly recreating Raha’s prison ordeal and the subsequent trial of her aggressors. The climatic rape scene is anatomically depicted to shivering effect. The stern atmosphere of court sessions for political prisoners, the cross examinations of witness’ and the accused prosecution is also meticulously researched.

One major flaw however is the controversy over the elections itself : was it as opponents claimed a 'fraudulent' one or as the Tehran regime (which pre selected all the cadidates) claimed 'genuinely' won by the controversial candidate Ahmadinejad? Saïdeh Pakravan offers scant evidence to what was the truth.

It is never clear to this reader at least where she herself stands in the current ideological debate on Iran’s future other than the obvious fact that she has no sympathy for the brutal theocracy or it’s revolutionary guards growing grip on power.

In wanting to paint an authentic image of Iranian society and the aspirations of it’s youth, Pakravan misses the opportunity to offer a more inclusive picture.

If only Iranians could have a system of government so dear to Tocqueville founded on checks and balances. Yet how can society fairly implement such a social contract, when it’s own deemed intelligentsia refuses to be held accountable for it’s past and present choices ? Pakravan’s narrative instead whitewashes the liberal intelligentsia’s poor judgement in 2009 but also their responsibility in enabling Khomeiny’s victory three decades earlier by suggesting that their ‘secular’ inspired revolution was ‘highjacked’ by religious zealots. To that effect she relies on two characters who stand apart and depicted as objective observers : the avuncular Djamchid and his fellow visiting scholar friend Gita. Both serve the author’s purpose in offering historical and political insights to the country’s past and present challenges. Djamchid (the name inspired by a mythical king in Ferdowsi’s 10th century epic, the Shahnameh, or Book of Kings – a paeon to Persian nationalism) whom the author presents as a role model to Raha is no less in self denial than the other characters. If he speaks in nostalgic terms of life under the Shah or rants against the « zerangi » - opportunistic nature - of Iranians, he hardly questions his own likemind’s responsibility in dumping the former 1906 Constitution upheld by the last Shah and his constitutionalist supporters. Gita, who mildly criticizes Dr Mohamad Mossadegh’s stubborness in the 1950s, comes across as a mosaic of many self-proclaimed ‘Iran Experts’ who in recent years have earned fame by selling the reformist agenda to Western Medias and foreign policy think tanks due to extensive, and often questionable lobbying. 

This well-written and humanistic novel suffers from a lack of genuine political representation and discourse. Perhaps the author could have included another character: a bluntly unapologetic monarchist sharing radically opposite views to all the other protagonists. This would have provided a more compelling read and authentic portrayal of the ideological rift dividing Iranians since the 1979 Revolution while encouraging debate on which direction Iran will take on the road to genuine freedom.

For the novel’s main protagonists, Freedom, is ultimately defined by the choices they make: Raha opts for exile while Hossein leaves the Sepah despite his loyalty to the regime’s ideological roots. This remains the true tragedy of this modern-day Persian tale – the flight of a lost generation in search of Azadi.

Saïdeh Pakravan is a writer, poet, essayist and film critic. A cosmopolitan she  divides her time between Paris and Washington.

English Version of Book Available On Amazon.com

French Version of Book Available at Belfond

Author's Notes:

Persian Version of the Review First Published in Kayhan London

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AZADI : A.U. P Book Launch Party for Saideh Pakravan's New Novel