The Ministry of Guidance Invites You to Not Stay

August 5, 2013
Having grown up mostly in America as the son of an Iranian diplomat, Brooklyn, N.Y.-based journalist and author Majd (The Ayatollah Begs to Differ) took his Wisconsin-born wife and young son for an experimental year’s stay in Tehran in order to immerse himself in the strange, yet familiar, culture of Iran. Not such an easy task for the Westernized couple, considering that the country is still firmly in the grips of a 30-year-old-plus Islamist dictatorship that polices public behavior and dress, embraces pervasive censorship and surveillance, and is under severe sanctions from the U.S. and the U.N. Moreover, since Majd had been called in for questioning by the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance on a previous trip with NBC News and scolded for the things he had written about President Ahmadinejad, he resolved not to use the year in Tehran for journalism, but to make a smooth life for his demanding yoga-instructor wife, Karri, and toddler, Khash. Majd sought out a quiet apartment away from Tehran’s traffic and sooty air, in a neighborhood where the family could actually push a stroller and find shops that offered organic foods, without attracting attention of the morality squad. Majd’s account is useful and elucidating, rather than newsworthy or surprising. Attending parties both traditional and alcohol fueled; observing the resigned, yet loyal mores of the Iranians whose reformist Green Movement was crushed two years before; and recording a tale of a survivor of Evin prison, Majd manages to offer insightful glimpses of the complex Iranian character.

October 1, 2013
The Iranian-American author of The Ayatollah Begs to Differ (2008) finds "home" in Iran with his American wife and baby a complicated, incongruous place. Having helped define the Iranian prickliness for American readers in his previous works, Majd, born to Iranian diplomats who left the country when he was young, resolved to take his blonde American wife and small child to live in Iran for a year. Why subject himself to the scrutiny of the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance and his wife to censorious roving patrols ticketing women for not "covering" themselves properly? Why endure the stultifying mix of the country's authoritarianism, religiosity and top-heavy cosmopolitanism? Majd, whose grandfather was an ayatollah, is a veteran journalist, keen to experience the Iranian revolution from the inside and familiarize himself with the supremely proud, nationalistic spirit of his native people. At the time of their yearlong visit, in 2011, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was still very much in power, the Green Movement was definitively quelled, and sanctions by the international community tightened to make inflation a living hell for most Iranians, with the sense of government tentacles felt everywhere. Yet the author speaks Farsi and has numerous family in the country, the monotony of life--a kind of endless 30-plus-year waiting game for things to be normalized, during which the Iranians regularly indulge in what Majd calls "the big sulk"--was dissipated by invitations to parties and elaborate social occasions within the international community. The author offers useful suggestions on finding an apartment, navigating the reconfigured currency, setting up Internet and TV connections, securing a steady liquor supply and finding his wife's organic baby goods, among other essentials. Majd used his year to relish the irrepressible quirks of the Persian character. A valiant attempt at emotional connection with the lost motherland.

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November 15, 2013

Freelance journalist Majd (The Ayatollah Begs To Differ: The Paradox of Modern Iran) identifies himself as an Iranian although, up until 2011, he had not lived in Iran since his family fled when he was a child. Then he decided to spend a year in Iran with his American wife, who had never been there, and their eight-month old son. Despite the economic sanctions against Iran, everything--alcohol, satellite feeds of Western media, VPNs for Internet access bypassing government restrictions, bootleg DVDs--was readily available there through parallel markets. Majd relates how they found an apartment, outlets from which to buy organic products, a secure Internet connection, and a DVD bootlegger. Readers will note that outward appearances have to be kept up in Iranian culture regardless of one's convictions. Majd and his wife learned to dress as the locals did and to endure the Ramadan fast. He relates their experience of the effects of political events abroad (e.g., the Arab Spring) and at home (e.g., the capture of locals branded as "spies"), but his focus is not on the political. Majd himself had to field inquiries from various surveillance groups on his intent and activities. VERDICT A personal account of one family's experience in Iran that helps readers to gain a flavor of life there that will balance with perceptions of Iran from news coverage. Recommended for those interested in contemporary Iranian society and culture.--Muhammed Hassanali, Shaker Heights, OH

Copyright 2013 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

September 15, 2013
Born in Tehran to an upper-class diplomat family that fled after the overthrow of the shah, Brooklyn journalist Majd has been to Iran many times and written extensively on contemporary politics there for news journals and TV. Then, in 2011, at age 50, he returned to Tehran for a year with his young American wife and their baby son. Never simplistic, his in-depth, insider-outsider perspectives make for a gripping narrative about what is going on, personally and politically, in that troubled country. A relative of former president Mohammad Khatami, Majd has many connections in Iran, even as some regard him as an American spy. His wife must wear a hijab, even to swim. They fast at Ramadan. Everyone talks politics; he has access to Iranian officialdom, and he shows close up how Iran's unique path of modernity fused with religion has very mixed results. In spite of it all, he reports, the literacy rate has been raised to nearly 90 percent. His on-the-spot reporting will engage readers and spark debate beyond the usual headline news of the theocracy and the fear in the Western world of potential Iranian nuclear weapons.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)