Ways to Survive, Battles to Win: Iranian Women Exiles in the Netherlands and United States

Addressing a wide range of theoretical positions and social discourses, Ghorashi shows how a community of women in exile with the same cultural and political background differ markedly in the way they come to define themselves in the Netherlands and the United States. Through interviews with Iranian women exiles in Amsterdam and Southern California, Ghorashi shows the dynamic and complex process of cultural identification. In presenting the stories of politically leftist women who became homeless in their own country, this book touches upon the question of how people in exile position themselves in space and time. The Iranian women's narratives of both internal and external exile contribute to a new understanding of home that is far more complex and multi-layered than is often assumed. The extensive presence of the author throughout the book as she conveys her own emotional reactions to the research and the women's narratives also contributes to an exceptional work about what women refugees go through before and after they find their place in the new world. Ghorashi travels with the women of her book as they tell of their lives past and present. A cultural anthropologist, she carefully balances her personal perspective with a scientific framework that brings past memories and present challenges in a way that will not be forgotten.