All freshman students enrolled in W131, English Composition I, at IU Kokomo will be reading the book, Journey from the Land of No by Roya Hakakian, this summer. Roya Hakakian was twelve years old in 1979 when the revolution swept through Tehran. The daughter of an esteemed poet and teacher, Roya grew up in household that hummed with intellectual life. Her memoir, Journey From the Land of No, is a lyrical and beautifully written coming-of-age story about one young, deeply intelligent and perceptive girl’s attempt to find an authentic voice of her own at a time of cultural closing and repression.
Hakakian also tells the vivid story of what it was like to grow up Jewish in Iran on the brink of the revolution. She writes about discovering a swastika painted on the wall of her peaceful alley, and also standing by as her classmates were escorted from school by Islamic Morality Guards, accused of reading blasphemous books, never to return to class. It was only later that Roya learned from her Persian Cosmopolitan teacher – the school administrator’s spy – that the reason she was spared was because the teacher admired her writing.
Throughout the book we witness fascinating courtship rituals as they unfold in Roya’s home, featuring eccentric uncles, aunts, brothers and friends. We experience in the most poignant, and at times 
painful ways, what life was like for women after the country fell into the hands of Islamic fundamentalists who had declared an insidious war against them, but always we see it through the eyes of a strong, youthful optimist who somehow came up in the world believing that she was different and knowing that she was special.*
Roya Hakakian will visit IU Kokomo in November to discuss the book with all freshman students.
*Book synopsis taking from www.royahakakian.com
Photos provided by American Program Bureau.
