Literature of the Iranian Diaspora

In 1995, Shahriah Mandanipour and 22 other prominent Iranian writers were nearly killed when an assassination plot hatched by the government failed to send their bus plummeting into a ravine. Mandanipour now lives in the United States, where he is a visiting scholar at Harvard University, and his most recent novel, Censoring an Iranian Love Story, which was written in America but is set in Iran, has recently been translated into English by Sara Khalili. Censoring is Mandanipour's first novel to appear in English translation, and it represents one installment of an emerging trend of Iranian diaspora writers, who catalog their memories of post-revolution Iran from their new places of refuge.

The "renaissance" features first- and second-generation hyphenated Iranians, among them Marjane Satrapi of Persepolis fame; Laleh Khadivi, author of Age of Orphans; and Porochista Khakpour, who wrote the post-9/11 novel Sons and Other Flammable Objects, set amongst Iranian Americans in New York City.

Censoring an Iranian Love Story is a multi-layered tale featuring a writers attempt to compose a straightforward romance while repeatedly being censored by government officials and his own anxiety.

From the article by David Mattin of The National Newspaper of Abu Dhabi:

It’s easy to see why censorship is important to Mandanipour; back in Iran he was banned from publishing entirely between 1992 and 1997:

“Censorship is emotionally crushing for the writer,” he explains, “because it weakens the connection that he has with his readers. Readers become less trusting of the writer, because they know he is being censored.

“Eventually, censorship enters every part of the writer’s life; even the way that he thinks. The writer begins to censor himself.”

That strange dance of speech and silence, Mandanipour says, came to overshadow his writing life in Iran:

“I would write entire short stories on my computer, and then delete them. If my house was raided, those stories might be used as evidence against me.

“With Censoring an Iranian Love Story, I wanted to show how it is impossible for a writer to write a straightforward love story in Iran. That story will always become something else, more complex.”

But Censoring will also provide western readers with an insight into daily life as it is lived in Iran. In particular, we witness the ever looming presence of the Basij “morals police”, and the ingenuity that young Tehranis exercise to circumvent their rules. The Islamic Republic decrees that unmarried men and women should not socialise together: in one passage, Sara and Dara meet in a hospital waiting room, where all those around them are too busy to notice their illegal encounter.

“Just as it is impossible to write a straightforward Iranian love story, it is impossible to live one,” says Mandanipour. “Iranians no longer have the opportunity to have a romantic life, and that can destroy love.”