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‘Journey from the Land of No’

NEW YORK, March 10, 2005 (CBS) – The year 1979 was a pivotal one in
the history of Iran and that country’s relationship with the United
States. The shah had abdicated and was replaced by the Ayatollah
Khomeini.

Angry demonstrators took control of the U.S. embassy and the whole
world watched as 52 Americans were taken hostage.

But as these events played out on the world stage, they also were
part of the daily life of a young Jewish girl growing up in Tehran.

“People are shocked to find out I’m a Jew, and I lived in Iran until
a few years ago,” Roya Hakakian tells The Early Show co-anchor
Harry Smith. “Isn’t it ironic that the Iranian Jewish community,
its history in Iran, precedes that of the Muslims in Iran, and hardly
anyone knows about it.”

Hakakian was a witness to the revolution and writes about it in
her new book, “Journey from the Land of No: A Girlhood Caught in
Revolutionary Iran.” Click here to read an excerpt.

In the book, she describes her wonderful family life and how it turned
around after the revolution.

She says, “I think of the Iranian revolution, even until today with
all the criticisms we are making about it, it’s the greatest event
I have in my own personal life, something I would not switch with
anything else in the world. It was because it took place for all the
right reasons. The fact that it went wrong is a tragedy. But it took
place because people demanded more civil liberties, more democracy,
openness — all the kinds of things that all the Middle East is really
vying for these days.”

The burst of emotion that is going on in Lebanon now is very similar
to the feelings Iranians felt at the time, Hakakian says.

“I’m willing to argue that it all began in Iran,” she explains. “Iran
is really where the center of this earthquake was in ’78, and the
reverberations are still being felt, since ’78.”

Back in the ’70s, her family lived harmoniously in a very diverse
society. She says, “We lived on an alley that I called, The Alley of
the Distinguished, in the book. We had Armenian Christian neighbors,
and Zoroastrians. And all kinds of people, along with my kind, Jewish,
and we had a fabulous time.”

But it all changed for the worst. The revolution did not bring about
the positive changes her family thought it would bring.

She says, “Transformation from those moments of ecstasy and euphoria,
and the complete conviction that things were going to be a lot better
than they had been, to a dark history we experienced two or three years
later are very important, not just for us as Iranians, but for the
rest of the world. Because Iran in ’78 and ’79 was one of the most
modern countries in the Middle East. And it became a fundamentalist
nation. How? Why? Why was it that religion become so powerful? In a
country that had that modern experience in a matter of two or three
years. I think those lessons are important for all of us.”

She notes that today Iran is a hopeful place, “not because of what
the headlines say, but because I think the general public recognizes
the fact that religion and the affairs of the state need to be
separated. And I think that is a huge leap forward.”

So who is to end the religious oppression?

“That’s the million dollar question,” she says. “But the important
thing is that as far as a cultural and sociological perspective is
concerned, people have come to the conclusion that we don’t want
theocracy any more; we have to separate the two institutions.”

The book has been getting rave reviews. It was named “best non-fiction
of the year” by Elle magazine.