November 2006

Writing a Life

Author Roya Hakakian Visits Campus

"She was so cute and funny!" exclaimed Emily Neilson '07 in reaction to a recent Paduano Lecture by Roya Hakakian, author of the critically acclaimed memoir, Journey From the Land of No.

Hakakian's most recent work chronicles her adolescent experiences against the backdrop of the Iranian Revolution. As a Jewish girl growing up in fundamentalist Tehran, her memoir is simultaneously humorous and tragic, charting her loss of innocence and her discovery of self as she gets stripped of her cultural and religious freedoms. Hakakian spoke passionately about the way in which Western media came to misunderstand the reality of Iranian life before, during, and after the Revolution and used her memoir as a way to capture the truth of her experience.

In addition, she spent time speaking with students about the writing process and visiting English and Humanities classes.