Issue link: http://cp.revolio.com/i/24680
Even after Esfandiari’s father died, her mother stayed on in Tehran. It was during a December 2006 visit to her then-93-year-old “Mutti” that Esfan- diari was mysteriously robbed of her passports. Refused exit from Iran, she was subjected to months of grueling, daily inter- rogations about her supposed plotting with the Wilson Center to overthrow Iran’s gov- ernment. She was ulti- mately confined at the notorious Evin prison, where the interminable questioning continued. Her interrogators, bas- ing their actions on U.S. acts hostile to Iran and on conspiratorial fantasies, insist- ed that the Center, which receives congressional funding, was planning a “velvet” revolution of the sort that overthrew Soviet-style governments in the independent countries of the former USSR. Determined not to say anything that would falsely implicate herself or the Wilson Center in subversion against the Iranian government and unaware of the international cam- paign for her freedom, the 67-year-old Esfan- diari sustained herself with a strict routine of exercise and reading. Her eight-month or- deal, including 105 days in solitary con- finement, ended large- ly because of a major international campaign for her freedom, in- cluding interventions by human rights organ- izations and U.S. presidential candi- dates, and culminating in a personal letter from Wilson Center director Lee Hamilton to Iran’s Ayatollah Khamenei. The ranks of Iran’s political pris- oners—some tortured, raped, even killed—continue to grow, but Esfan- diari retains hope in the ability of Ira- nians, in time, to change their government and society. Like Hamil- ton, she favors dialogue and negotia- tion and sees U.S. support for subversive activities as counterpro- ductive. The recent huge demonstra- tions in favor of honest government, sparked by women, reinforce her analysis. Iran’s rulers say they will talk with the U.S. on some issues. We should, as Esfandiari suggests, con- sider even dialogue that provides only an opening wedge to improvements in human rights, women’s rights and the nuclear issue. President Obama’s willingness to talk with Iran is in line with the lessons of Esfandiari’s out- standing book. NIKKI KEDDIE, PH.D., is professor emerita of Iranian and Middle Eastern history at the University of California, Los Angeles. an issue that unites women worldwide, though not in a good way: the desire for an ideal body. She shows how that elusive image is constructed according to social, economic and cultural values and asks why we spend so much time and energy on its pursuit. Dispatches From the Abortion Wars: The Costs of Fanaticism to Doctors, Patients and the Rest of Us By Carole Joffe Beacon Press A self-described “abortion war correspon- dent” takes readers into the trenches, where clinic workers labor under legislative red tape, lack of funding and the threat of anthrax attacks, sabotage and murder. Evi- dent throughout is the disconnect between their compassion and the inflammatory rhetoric of their enemies. www.msmagazine.com More of This World or Maybe Another By Barb Johnson Harper Perennial Carpenter-turned-fiction-writer Johnson offers a debut collection of New Orleans-based short stories, but the piquant tales resemble a novel with extra-long time lapses between chapters. Among the characters are longtime lovers Maggie and Delia, who come to realize, “Love is not trouble. It is all we have to light our days, to bring music to the time we’ve been given.” The Collected Stories of Lydia Davis By Lydia Davis Farrar, Strauss and Giroux This complete compilation of Davis’ critical- ly acclaimed work hums with a feminist un- dercurrent, each micro-story balancing between poetry and prose. Between Good and Ghetto: African American Girls and Inner-City Violence By Nikki Jones Rutgers University Press Weaving black feminist theory with urban ethnography, Jones intimately describes neighborhoods where women and girls literally fight for their lives. Her study of violence and survival focuses attention on the destitution of inner-city childhood. Still Brave: The Evolution of Black Women’s Studies Edited by Stanlie M. James, Frances Smith Foster and Beverly Guy-Sheftall The Feminist Press at CUNY This definitive collection of writings on race and gender from the past 30 years contains gems from Angela Davis, bell hooks, June Jordan, Audre Lorde, Alice Walker and more. FALL 2009 | 59