From Miniskirt to Hijab cover art

From Miniskirt to Hijab

A Girl in Revolutionary Iran

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About this listen

Jacqueline Saper, named after Jacqueline Kennedy, was born in Tehran to Iranian and British parents. At 18 she witnessed the civil unrest of the 1979 Iranian revolution and continued to live in the Islamic Republic during its most volatile times, including the Iran-Iraq War. In a deeply intimate and personal story, Saper recounts her privileged childhood in prerevolutionary Iran and how she gradually became aware of the paradoxes in her life and community - primarily the disparate religions and cultures.

In 1979 under the Ayatollah regime, Iran became increasingly unfamiliar and hostile to Saper. Seemingly overnight she went from living a carefree life of wearing miniskirts and attending high school to listening to fanatic diatribes, forced to wear the hijab, and hiding in the basement as Iraqi bombs fell over the city. She eventually fled to the United States in 1987 with her husband and children after, in part, witnessing her six-year-old daughter’s indoctrination into radical Islamic politics at school. At the heart of Saper’s story is a harrowing and instructive tale of how extremist ideologies seized a Westernized, affluent country and transformed it into a fundamentalist Islamic society.

©2018 Jaqueline Saper (P)2021 Blackstone Publishing Middle East Women Iran
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Having independently driven to Iran twice, I wasn’t at all disappointed with this fascinating story. Really well written and left me wanting to hear more. (Audible) Jacqueline set the scene with her Jewish family in Tehran during the era of the Shah, then her teenage years and the political changes of the Islamic Revolution, and her marriage and eventual exodus from Iran to settle in America. For anyone with an interest in Iranian modern history and how it affected every day life, this book will not disappoint. I hope Jacqueline writes another book. 5 stars

What an amazing story!

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This was an interesting story of the life in Iran during the revolution. It gives a deeper understanding of the life of non-Muslim family in Iran

Very interesting

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As an Iranian born and bred during the war I relayed to this story on so many levels. The story is gripping and true on so many level. The details described depicts the whole scene in the listeners mind. One of the best books I have listened to. Highly highly recommend it

Gripping story

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Really interesting I enjoyed that it was from a normal person just trying to live round both the ridiculousness of the rules & regulations & the very real danger if you attracted any sort of attention for the most mundane things.

Very Enjoyable

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This account has gone further than any thing I have heard or read in giving an understanding of the culture and life in the beautiful country of Iran. It also explains to a degree the psychology of the Muslim religion. I am very glad to have listened to it.

Fascinating

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