What to read to understand Iran

Three books that cast a light on the country under Islamic Republic rule

The Unthinkable Revolution in Iran by Charles Kurzman (2004)

Very few people, including some of the plotters themselves, believed Iran’s 1979 uprising would topple a king. Charles Kurzman traces how the revolution defied predictions from Iran’s backers in Washington that the shah, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, would remain in power for years to come following an uprising that emerged from the ground up. This book shows that revolutions are always unpredictable, even when they succeed. For a page-turning account of how the shah’s hubris meant he lost control of his kingdom, Scott Anderson’s King of Kings is a perfect complement to this book.

Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi (2003)

Marjane Satrapi’s two-volume graphic novel shows Iran through the eyes of a child, and then an adolescent, trying to understand the regime that abruptly comes to rule over the lives of her and her family. She increasingly rebels and eventually escapes the restrictions of the Islamic Republic. Satrapi’s work is a poignant account of how the average person navigates growing up in a police state, exploring the boundaries between the self and the outside world.

Prisoner: My 544 Days in an Iranian Prison by Jason Rezaian (2019)

Jason Rezaian’s account of spending 544 days inside Tehran’s infamous Evin prison doesn’t shy away from the absurdities of Iran’s detention system: imprisoned for nothing more than working as a journalist for the Washington Post, he was given a show trial and subjected to solitary confinement. Prisoner provides a picture of everyday life in Iran and a deeply human portrait of the interrogators, jailers and judges who form the system of repression that looms over it all. Alongside Rezaian’s own story that includes interactions with the Obama White House and a ride on Jeff Bezos’s private plane, Prisoner details the superhuman effort required to free someone from state-sponsored kidnapping.

Ruth Michaelson is The Observer’s Middle East editor

Illustration from Persepolis by United Archives GmbH Alamy