Veils and Words


Book Description

This is the first book in any language about the writing of women in Iran. For centuries any sense that there could be a literary tradition among women was suppressed. Since the middle of the 19th century, however, a number a of pioneering women have defied the traditional order to produce poetry and novels of the highest quality; but many of them have paid for their courage with accusations of immorality, promiscuity, heresy and even lunacy.




Veils and Words


Book Description

"From Library Journal : Traditionally, Iranian women have been veiled from public view and constrained from public expression. Milani illustrates that in Iran the 19th-century movement to unveil was closely linked to women's emergence as literary figures. This, the first work devoted to the rich literature of the female writers of Iran, is itself an example of great literature from an Iranian female writer. With poetic insight, Milani dis cusses the themes of disclosure and secrecy that have delineated the Iranian woman's universe and characterized her expression. Highly recommended for all literature, anthropology, and women's studies collections."--Amazon.ca.




Words, Not Swords


Book Description

A woman not only needs a room of her own, as Virginia Woolf wrote, but also the freedom to leave it and return to it at will; for a room without that right becomes a prison cell. The privilege of self-directed movement, the power to pick up and go as one pleases, has not been a traditional "right" of Iranian women. This prerogative has been denied them in the name of piety, anatomy, chastity, class, safety, and even beauty. It is only during the last 160 years that the spell has been broken and Iranian women have emerged as a moderating, modernizing force. Women writers have been at the forefront of this desegregating movement and renegotiation of boundaries. Words, Not Swords explores the legacy of sex segregation and its manifestations in Iranian literature and film and in notions of beauty and the erotics of passivity. Milani expands her argument beyond Iranian culture, arguing that freedom of movement is a theme that crosses frontiers and dissolves conventional distinctions of geography, history, and religion. She makes bold connections between veiling and foot binding, between Cinderella and Barbie, between the figures of the female Gypsy and the witch. In so doing, she challenges cultural hierarchies that divert attention from key issues in the control of women across the globe.




Veils


Book Description

The ten stories in Veils take place in present-day Iran or in the United States where Iranian immigrants face alien ways. Teheran's ancient Ghanat Abad Avenue, with its labyrinth of narrow streets and alleys, loosely links the stories into a single narrative: some residents leave as soon as they can, others can live nowhere else. The men and women in these spare and sensuous narratives who are caught in the confusing whirl of changing cultures sometimes meet with failure but more often transcend difficult circumstances to gain deeper self-knowledge.




The Veil


Book Description

Veiling is a globally polarizing issue, a locus for the struggle between Islam and the West and between contemporary and traditional interpretations of Islam. This book examines the vastly misunderstood and multi-layered world of the veil. It explores and analyzes the cultures, politics, and histories of veiling.




Journey Through Ten Thousand Veils


Book Description

Born in a Jewish family, Maryam Kabeer was led to live in India and Nepal, and in monasteries in Europe, and then guided to embrace Islam at the hands of an ancient Sufi Master a few minutes away from the tomb of the Prophet Abraham. She then was guided to study intensively with Sufi Masters around the world. Her journey to the holy places and people of the earth, led her finally to Africa and the deep truth that all lives are totally interconnected and united with our own. This book is a significant and revealing social commentary, also dispelling many other myths and stereotypes such as the proposition, often fostered by the media, that women are inevitably oppressed in Islam. On the contrary, it is by entering into the heart of Islam that the author was liberated, elevated, empowered, and guided to realize the true purpose of her existence.




The Veil of Isis


Book Description

Nearly twenty-five hundred years ago the Greek thinker Heraclitus supposedly uttered the cryptic words "Phusis kruptesthai philei." How the aphorism, usually translated as "Nature loves to hide," has haunted Western culture ever since is the subject of this engaging study by Pierre Hadot. Taking the allegorical figure of the veiled goddess Isis as a guide, and drawing on the work of both the ancients and later thinkers such as Goethe, Rilke, Wittgenstein, and Heidegger, Hadot traces successive interpretations of Heraclitus' words. Over time, Hadot finds, "Nature loves to hide" has meant that all that lives tends to die; that Nature wraps herself in myths; and (for Heidegger) that Being unveils as it veils itself. Meanwhile the pronouncement has been used to explain everything from the opacity of the natural world to our modern angst. From these kaleidoscopic exegeses and usages emerge two contradictory approaches to nature: the Promethean, or experimental-questing, approach, which embraces technology as a means of tearing the veil from Nature and revealing her secrets; and the Orphic, or contemplative-poetic, approach, according to which such a denuding of Nature is a grave trespass. In place of these two attitudes Hadot proposes one suggested by the Romantic vision of Rousseau, Goethe, and Schelling, who saw in the veiled Isis an allegorical expression of the sublime. "Nature is art and art is nature," Hadot writes, inviting us to embrace Isis and all she represents: art makes us intensely aware of how completely we ourselves are not merely surrounded by nature but also part of nature.




The Dance of the Rose and the Nightingale


Book Description

This is an extraordinary autobiography of a young girl growing up in Iran. The daughter of an English Christian mother and an Iranian Zoroastrian father, Nesta Ramazani sketches her personal life story against the backdrop of a society marked by the fusion of Iranian, Islamic, and Western cultures, and by the efforts of an authoritarian state to force modernization on a traditional society. Within this multicultural tapestry of personal, cultural, and national life, the author portrays how she came to love Persian and Western music, poetry, and dance. But translating this love into practice seemed an insurmountable task until an American woman pioneered the establishment of the first indigenous Iranian ballet company. As a member of this troupe, the author violated convention, performing first in her native land and then traveling abroad to exhibit this beautiful synthesis of Persian/Western forms to foreign audiences. The significance of this work transcends an autobiography penned by an Iranian woman—still a taboo in traditional Iranian society—it is a unique microcosm of today’s universal quest for a dialogue among civilizations. Ramazani’s story will appeal not only to students of Iran, the Middle East, and women’s studies, but also to general readers.




The City of Veils


Book Description

Walking the line between royal and renegade has never been so treacherous. Five years ago, facing an arranged marriage in a distant country, Princess Brynna ran away and became The Veil, a masked vigilante protecting the streets of Forcadel. But when her father and brother are murdered - and the killer is nowhere to be found - she's forced back into a life of crowns and gowns instead of cloaks and cut-throats. But The Veil's problems remain. Her nemesis, Lord Beswick, continues to prey on the most innocent in the city. Unable to stand by and do nothing, Brynna strikes a deal with her overly-protective captain to finish what she started before she's officially crowned queen and she has to hang up her mask for good. Now, Brynna must find a royal murderer, take down a slumlord businessman, and keep her kingdom in one piece - not to mention stay alive herself in this award-winning first book in this fast-paced young adult epic fantasy. ★★★★★ "I devoured this story and am eager for the next one." - Bethany Wicker, Young Adult Books Central ★★★★★ "The City of Veils is entertaining from the first page to the last. The wait for the next book will feel interminable." - Catherine Thureson, Foreward Reviews ★★★★★ "With its immersive world, and unapologetically subversive heroine, CITY OF VEILS will knock you down and keep you coming back for more" - Jennifer Ellison, author of the Threats of Sky and Seas ★★★★★ "I highly suggest this book to anyone who read the Throne of Glass series. This book is full of great fight scenes, emotional blows, and great moments of laughter." - Goodreads Reviewer Series Order The City of Veils The Veil of Ashes The Veil of Trust The Queen of Veils Search Terms: YA Fantasy, Princess, Assassin, Young Adult, magic, sorcery, myth, actions, female protagonist, novel, hero, fantasy, political, mystery, Young Adult Fantasy, Princess Fantasy, vigilante fantasy, epic fantasy, epic YA fantasy, YA epic fantasy, Young adult epic fantasy, clean romance




The Painted Veil


Book Description

Kitty Fane's affair with Assistant Colonial Secretary Townsend is interrupted when she is taken from Hong Kong by her vengeful bacteriologist husband to work in a cholera epidemic.