To be Unbound

Nahid Rachlins -Persian Girls

Marquetta Strait
September 18, 2013
South Asian Literature
Dr. Gavin
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Marquetta Strait
September 18, 2013
South Asian Literature
Dr. Gavin
Nahid Rachlins Persian Girls
To be Unbound

Nahid Rachlins Persian Girls was wonderfully written and is the epitome of culture. It
should be acclaimed as a Blockbuster novel because it is such a rich and relatable piece.
Throughout this book, Nahid seemed to conduct a self-evaluation, which is interesting because
many people do not evaluate themselves until they reach the period of adulthood. While reading,
I noticed three motifs throughout the story, politics, culture, and flight.
It was fascinating to see how Rachlin not only presented a young girl that dealt with
family struggles, but she also tied in the history of Iran and Iraq to paint a more vivid picture of
the political standpoints. Opposing the beliefs of Khomeini, the Shah wanted to form a more
modern country. His changes were improving women's rights, but also hindering them at the
same time. It was optional for the women to wear the chador, but they were still chastised about
their appearance, the color of their clothing, and their level of education.
Although the Shah was not perfect and did mismanage the money of his country, he,
turned out to be a better dictator than Khomini in Iran. His plan to modernize his country was
the great divide between the older and younger generations. The separation between religion and
modernism is one of the reasons there were many complications within the political system. For
instance, SAVAK was basically the trained assassins whose role was to intimidate and make
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examples out of those that were against the Shah's policies. The two loved ones of Nahids that
were presumably killed by the SAVAK were Mrs. Soleimani (Nahids teacher) and Jalal (the
bookstore owner).
One of my favorite characters within the story was Mrs. Soleimani. I appreciated her
honesty with her students and her wanting them to become more aware of their surroundings.
She wanted them to become more than women that were barefoot and pregnant. She wanted
them to know their current limitations. One of their limitations was the right to vote. At a
certain time, women were granted the right to vote, but their votes were not considered because
many had to vote based on their husbands decisions. Unfortunately, women were not seen as
having an opinion. Those that did have an education were not valued because they were
considered a know-it-all, which was really despised by many men because they were supposed
to have the upper hand in their relationship.
The contrast of the Shah and Khominis dictatorship was astounding to many of the
citizens at this time. Usually one may think that a negative ruler should be replaced with a
positive leader that cares about its people and wants to make progressions towards success.
Unfortunately, Khominis rulings took their country backwards. There was an even larger
division between genders. Men and women had separate entrance and exit doors. Aside from
the gender separation, the country had undergone inflation and the atmosphere was becoming
more depressing.
One of the most challenging moments within Nahids life was her separation between her
mother/aunt. To me, this was one of the hardest struggles in Nahids life because she and
Maryam had formed a bond that no one could divide. If it was not for Pari, Nahid would have
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become more withdrawn from the sense of family. Although she got along with her brothers,
their stay was short because they were soon off to America. Her father was very domineering
and, in a way, had similar dictating habits as the Shah.
Although Pari was not able to go to America, her interest in American movies was her
way out of the misery she had to undergo. I believe that she was more fascinated in becoming an
actress because she had the opportunity to try on a new persona that would allow her to escape
her current situations. This is similar to people that are alcoholics and drug addicts. Many
people use drugs because they want to be on a high. They want to escape their problems.
Unfortunately, when they get off of their high, they are brought back to reality to face the same
problems that have not changed. This is the same with acting. Although Pari could escape her
issues for a few moments, when the lights go down and the curtains close, she is still a woman
whose opinions are not being considered. Although Pari expressed her happiness for Nahids
ability to go to America, she probably was also jealous of her opportunity. Movies such as A
Star is Born, influenced her interest in being discovered, but her opinions were always refuted.
Unfortunately, she was unable to be with her true love, delve into her career aspirations, and
raise her son.
The third motif was aviation. Commonly we tend to think of aviation as taking a plane.
This is true, but I also attribute aviation to Nahids process of flight throughout all of her
struggles. Ali was often described as feeding pigeons throughout the story. On pg. 47, Ali is
told to stop staring at the pigeons. I believe during this time, Ali was intrigued and jealous at
how the pigeons were able to fly away. At this time, Ali expressed his wanting to fly away from
his current position as a servant to be with his wife in a happier environment. Nahid expressed
her wanting to go to America and escape the bondage in her country. Similar to Pari, she saw
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the freedom that Americans had and wanted to embrace that freedom through her writing. The
censorship of the literature held her back, but also encouraged her to want to learn more. With
Jalals assistance, she read stories that influenced her writings. To her, writing was not a hobby;
it was her way of life and her therapy. If Nahid did not express her sentiments through her
writing, she would bottle up so much anger.
As an education major, I would love for my students to read this novel. Often there are
so many stereotypes placed on this ethnic group. Many categorize this group as the people that
wear scarves on their heads. This novel quenches the thirst on culture because it responds to the
many misconceptions that are placed upon them. Nahid Rachlin did a fantastic job in creating
her memoir. I enjoyed the way she not only told some of the negative situations with her family,
but she also included highlights of herself that did not paint her in a good light, such as her two
occasions where she could have been raped. I believe this novel shows that no one is perfect and
we all undergo struggles throughout our lives. The question is how do we handle our
problematic situations and move across those hurdles throughout life?