The Ministry of Guidance… – BONUS POST

This blogger skimmed “The Ministry of Guidance Invites You to Not Stay” by Hooman Majd, published in 2013.

This is the personal account of an Iranian-American journalist who moves to Iran for a year with his wife and infant son in 2011. He describes the Iranian government’s mentality and the country’s culture. “Iranians in general and the revolutionaries in particular hate the British government more than any other.” Iranians feel powerless and fatalistic. They are loath to rebel again against their oppressive government because the revolutions of 1979 and 2009 resulted in much bloodshed, and failed to generate economic prosperity and respect for human rights, regardless of adherence to Islamic law.

Read the book to learn the author’s take on his family’s adventure, the Iranian government’s take on it (he must be a spy), and the hopes and fears shared by the people of his native country.