Daughter of Persia A Woman's Journey from Her Father's Harem Through the Islamic Revolution

1. Among the important emotional threads running through Daughter of Persia is Sattareh Farman Farmaian's lasting veneration for her distant but beloved father, to whom she refers simply as Shazdeh, "the Prince." How did Shazdehor Satti's memory of Shazdehinfluence her life and career? What other people struck you as especially important to Satti in her adult life?2. Did the depiction of Satti's childhood home change your impressions of a "harem compound"? In what ways was Shazdeh's compound a microcosm of Persian life as the author claims existed for thousands of years? Why did Persians feel that having a protector was so critical to survival? Do you think the need for a "protector" is a universal experience or particular to the Persian culture?3. The incident in which Satti's mother refused to go to the police after being cheated by a beggar was a crucial lesson for Satti in the Persian axiom that one must "never trust anyone outside the family." Are Americans generally taught to trust those outside the family? Are there circumstances in American culture in which it is considered unwise or even unethical to depend on "family"? Do all Western cultures emphasize independence from family?4. How did Satti's descriptions of individual Persian women from childhoodher mother Khanom, her stepmothers Batul and Fatimeh, Princess Ezzatdoleh, Neggar-Saltaneh (the wedding party hostess), or Shazdeh's strong-willed sister, Najmeh-Saltaneh, the mother of Dr. Mohammed Mossadeghboth support and contradict Western stereotypes of traditional Moslem women?5. If Shazdeh had lived a year or two longer, he would have found Satti a husband. How do you think her life would have turned out if she had been married off by her father? Might she still have been able to fight for social reforms? Do you think she could still have found happiness if she had had a conventional Persian marriage?6. Satti felt that a priceless lesson of her student years in America, "the land at the end of the earth," was the freedom to speak openly and criticize anyone, even teachers and the government. She believed that if Iranians could learn to speak freely, "we could solve our problems." For this reason, she decided that one day she would return to Iran and teach Persians the value of "constructive criticism." Do you see as much "constructive criticism" in American public life today as Satti did then? Is it possible to solve large-scale social problems without "constructive criticism"?7. Another of Satti's observations as a student was that "America was a wasteful nation." Satti felt that her American friends threw away clothing and even food they did not want without realizing the luxury in which they lived compared to countries like Iran. Do you think "Americans are wasteful"? In what sense? Do you think Satti should have been more sympathetic to her friends, noting that Americans' circumstances were different than Iranians'?8. What was your reaction to the 1953 overthrow of Dr. Mohammed Mossadegh, Iran's democratically-elected premier, by supporters of Mohammed Reza Shah, the British intelligence service, and the American CIA? Were you surprised to learn that, although it took more than a quarter of a century for Americans who enjoy freedom of the press to learn of their government's involvement in the plot, Iranians learned the truth within days? Do you think the United States should never become involved in the overthrow of a democratically-elected regime in a foreign country? Or do you think it's politically naive to believe we must never betray the principles of democracy?9. Satti's "Bulldozers"the young men and women she recruited and tFarmaian, Sattareh Farman is the author of 'Daughter of Persia A Woman's Journey from Her Father's Harem Through the Islamic Revolution', published 2006 under ISBN 9780307339744 and ISBN 0307339742.