Lipstick Jihad

In Azadeh Moaveni's memoir, she details life returning to Iran, the country her parents fled during the Islamic revolution. Moaveni was raised in California but has always felt a tug toward the country of her ancestry. She returns as a journalist for Time hoping to find more about her country and herself. She finds that, just like in America, she doesn't quite fit in. She writes of her experiences moving among the youth of Iran and how they both conform and defy the strictures placed upon them by their religion and government. The presence of the veil is especially important and Moaveni talks of the hypocritical male Muslim officials who insist on the veil while harassing and propositioning young women and practicing "temporary marriage" in order to sleep with them. The increasing fear of outsiders is apparent by the shady figures who follow Moaveni and other journalists to make sure they don't go too far afield in their reporting. Lipstick Jihad is a moving account of a young woman's pull between two cultures.