Lipstick Jihad is journalist Azadeh Moaveni’s memoir about growing up “Iranian in America and American in Iran.” As a child, Moaveni moved with her mother to southern California, then after college returned to Tehran to work as a journalist. While there, Moaveni discovers a country going through a sort of adolescent struggle to find itself in the face of an oppressive religious regime and a government that can’t seem to get going in the right direction. As Moaveni becomes more accustomed to Iran, she sees how fundamental changes are coming from the bottom up, rather than top down, and that Iran has some potential for change.
This is a book that I randomly found sitting on the used book table in our campus bookstore. When I saw the cover and read the description, I knew it was a book that I’d be interested in because it has so many of the themes I love in books: gender politics, journalism, and the ties between language, and identity, just to name a few. With that many things I love all in the same book, I had high expectations for Lipstick Jihad even though I knew nothing about the story before I picked it up. Happily, Lipstick Jihad exceeded my expectations, and I can enthusiastically recommend the book to just about anyone.
In addition to being well-written and interesting, this book also contains one of the best explanations of the Iranian Revolution and the changes in the country since 1979 that I’ve ever read. Iranian politics can be very confusing, in part because since the Revolution the players have drastically changed and don’t get referred to in the same way all the time. I’ve read a number of memoirs and books on similar topics, but none of them have as clearly articulate the conflict as Moaveni does in Lipstick Jihad. For that, I have to give the book high praise.
I also enjoyed Moaveni as a narrator because she is easy to relate to. She is not easy on herself as she tries to adjust to her new country, and she’s honest about her faults and struggles. One of my favorite passages is when she writes about how she uses work to avoid some of the things that scare her about Iran:
So often, my days off didn’t measure up to the lofty, soul-enriching life I had expected to live in Iran, and this was depressing enough that it made me stop taking days off altogether. If a story demanded four interviews, I did ten. I typed up my handwritten notes, printed them out, and filed them with pretty page markers. Then I made a thimble of Turkish coffee, sat down to read the papers, and made a list (typed with bullet points) of more story ideas. Work had no equal as a balm to anxiety. I even took my laptop to family lunches, where relatives looked at me pityingly and remarked that American journalism was really a form of indentured servitude. Then they asked for the hundredth time why I didn’t become a broadcast journalist (better for finding a husband), as though newspapers were pastures for unattractive reporters who didn’t make the grade aesthetically for television.
There are a ton of honest and funny moments like this in the book that make Moaveni an endearing narrator. As a young journalist, I especially related to sections like this where Moaveni wrote about her process and techniques as a reporter and how those needed to change once she moved to Iran.
I could include a ton of great passages where Moaveni writes just beautifully about the students and revolutionaries she meets during her time in Tehran, but I’m just going to cut myself off here and get to the point. Moaveni just published a second memoir, Honeymoon in Tehran, which I am definitely going to buy, probably even in hardcover, because I enjoyed Jipstick Jihad so much. Speaking as someone with limited funds, I’m not sure if there is a higher praise for a first book than that.
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{ 11 comments… read them below or add one }
what a fantastic find…I’m intrigued by this review. I will have to add this to the ever-growing list of books recommended by bloggers.
This sounds like something that would be very interesting to me; I love all of those themes you mentioned.
I think I know a little bit about how the author felt. When we lived in France, I never felt like I fit in, yet when I would return to the US for a little while, I didn’t feel like I fit in here either. Sounds like a great book.
I’ve heard of this one a few times and am really interested in reading it. Thanks for pointing out that she makes things easy to understand…the sign of a great writer.
I just read Honeymoon in Tehran a couple of weeks ago, and liked it a lot. I have Lipstick Jihad in the TBR stack, and I’m looking forward to reading it (even though I have the order backwards). Thanks for the great review!
Kim,
I have just awarded you (and six other BIP members) for the I Love Your Blog award. The details are at my blog. I may not have said it but I do appreciate all you’ve been doing to help me and others improve our blogs. And, I do love your blog.
A colleague of mine read this book last summer, and it looked intriguing. Thanks for reminding me of it!
Yes, this was a fantastic random find. I’m really happy I read it. The book just seemed to hit every never of things I like in storytelling, which was cool and kind of weird since i have such wildly differing topics I like to read about.
Yes, Moaveni does a great job of showing the difficulty of embracing two cultures. She really shows it well near the end when she leave Tehran and comes back to the US. When did you live in France?
I like to think it’s because she’s a journalist (I’m biased
), but yes, clear writing is a sign of a great writer. The Iranian Revolution is very, very complicated, but this book explained enough that I wanted to learn more about it rather than continuing to half understand what had happened.
Yes, I remember your review. I read it just as I was starting Lipstick Jihad, and it convinced me I was right in being excited for the book and that I’d probably get the next one. I don’t think the order being backwards for these will make too much of a difference.
No problem! I love finding reviews that remind me of a book I forgot about.