"Journey from the Land of No is an immensely moving, extraordinarily eloquent, and passionate memoir. Its author begins what one may prophesy as a major literary career." -- Harold Bloom

"She is a wonderfully engaging speaker, a great intellect, and a warm and sincere person. I could not have imagined a better speaker for our campus and an easier person to work with." -- Vincent H. Melomo, Peace College


Then They Came for the Bahai E-mail
Written by Roya Hakakian   

Forward
IN mastering the knowledge that even bigotry is relative and comes in gradations, I was a premature pupil. I learned this lesson when I was only 10.

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Reading the Holocaust Cartoons in Tehran E-mail
Written by Roya Hakakian   

The New York Times
THE news of the exhibition of Holocaust cartoons in Tehran took me back to a moment in my childhood. In 1974, his first year at Tehran’s Academy for Visual Arts, my brother mounted an exhibition of his own cartoons. The drawings were a novice’s best attempt at political satire, but they were enough to alarm my law-abiding father into sending my brother away to America. Our family was never whole again.

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The End of the Dispensable Iranian E-mail
Written by Roya Hakakian   

DAWN had always arrived in Berlin’s Turm Strasse with the bustling of shopkeepers and the drowsy hiss of buses pulling into their stops. Always, except on the morning of April 10, 1997. On that day, the street had been cleared of traffic and blocked to anyone but pedestrians. On the rooftop of every building leading to Nos. 91-92, snipers had been stationed.

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Iranian Solidarity? E-mail
Written by Roya Hakakian   

The Wall Street Journal

The bomb that Tehran's mullahs are allegedly building has already done its damage. For two years now, it has decimated the headlines. In the mushroom cloud of its anticipation, some of the most critical stories in Iran have vanished. "The bomb" is an ingenious design by which to divert any global interest in the country's domestic matters, giving the ruling clerics free rein to devastate opposition with all the brutality they can muster. Among the ruins is an event unprecedented in 27 years: A major strike by the workers of Sherkat-e Vahed, the Union of Workers of the United Bus Company of Tehran

 
A Demonizing Call E-mail
Written by Roya Hakakian   

The Washington Post
When Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called last month for Israel to be wiped off the map of the world, he displayed a disregard for the international community that proved he is a genuine disciple of the late Ayatollah Khomeini. But his proposal also showed that he hasn't learned any lessons from recent Iranian history. In a country where public opinion takes shape in direct opposition to the regime, the objects of hostile statements like Ahmadinejad's almost always win friends among young Iranians.

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Hungering for Reform in Iran E-mail

The Washington Post

The debate over Iran's quest for nuclear weapons has produced thousands of headlines over the past couple of years, but anyone who's been following closely should know this much: There is no real news there. The issue has become a mere political symphony in which the same theme gets repeated over and over with only small variations. Yet it still gets significant coverage in the global media.

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