Laetitia Nanquette

THE GLOBAL CIRCULATION OF AN 10 IRANIAN BESTSELLER

20 Laetitia Nanquette

QA: MSK COLL: MM University of New South Wales, Australia 25 ...... Memoirs by Iranian women in the diaspora have long been the standard reading for western readers interested in Iran. However, The Book of Fate bestseller by Parinoush Saniee, a popular novel newly translated into English and circulation many other European languages, interpolates both the orientalist discourse 30 memoirs offer and the Iranian memoirs industry. The translation of this Iranian literature Iranian text with a feminist Islamic discourse inserts the book into a global literary ﬁeld context that allows the perception of Iran to impact on western stereotypes. Assisted by its writer, literary agent, translator and publisher, it also has the 35 postcolonial agency, a ‘distributed agency’ to interpolate the dominant system of translation publishing and circulation. My methodology is a combination of close reading, postcolonial theory and Pierre Bourdieu’s analysis of the literary ...... ﬁeld, which I adapt to the Iranian and English-speaking context. I analyse 40 the publishing processes in Iran and in English-speaking countries, the book covers, the reception of major literary awards, commercial success, and critical reception (critics, media attention, reviews by general readers on websites such as Amazon and Goodreads). 45

What comes to mind to general readers if they are asked to name some texts of 60 Iranian literature? Perhaps works of classical Persian poetry or, more likely, memoirs written in English by writers of Iranian origin, such as Azar Nafisi’s Reading Lolita in Tehran. Since the 2000s, women of Iranian origin have written many autobiographies directly in English and published 65 them in English-speaking countries. There is diversity among diasporic memoirs, but many are tailored to the interests of an Anglophone audience and play a role as cultural documents. They describe life in Iran both before the Islamic revolution and during its turbulent days, as well as the war with 70 Iraq and the process of adapting to a new western country. In recent years, however, a new kind of Iranian literature has made its appearance in English translation: contemporary bestsellers translated from the Persian. One significant example is The Book of Fate, translated in 75 1 1 Another example is 2013 (Saniee 2002; Saniee and Khalili 2013). Written by a woman, it Kimya Khatun, describes the life of a strong fictional woman, a religious but unconventional translated into English in 2012 character. Not only has it been successful in Iran in terms of sales, but it has (Ghods 2004; Ghods also become a cultural phenomenon within Iranian society. Although not 80 and Phillips 2012). endowed with the cultural prestige of literary prizes, it has been talked about in literary fora, including prestigious ones like Bokhara, and become part of a discourse on the state of Iranian society. It is also one of the Iranian bestsellers that has had the widest circulation and success globally. 85 Why is this book narrating the life journey of a woman married to a communist activist significant? What does its circulation tell us about the movement of ideas and characters and about the book market globally? I will concentrate fi on translations into English, which are the most signi cant in a cultural world 90 where English is the hyper-central language (Heilbron 1999), but The Book of 2 The Book of Fate Fate has been translated into many other European and non-European has been translated languages.2 into German, Italian, Norwegian, The rules that govern literary exchanges in Iran and in English-speaking 95 Bulgarian, countries are quite different, and this difference leads to a displacement of Romanian, Polish, the Iranian text with familiar western discourses, especially with western fem- Finnish, Hungarian, inism, when it becomes globally distributed. The book’s global circulation is Dutch, Danish, Portuguese, Japanese, linked to several factors. First, this bestseller by an Iranian woman writer 100 Turkish and Spanish; builds on the familiarity constructed among the western readership on Iran translations are in by diasporic memoirs. Second, it benefits from an exhaustion of the stereo- preparation in Arabic, Kurdish and types depicted by diasporic memoirs, as its portrays a different Iranian Macedonian. After woman and engages in a global discourse on feminism, offering an alternative 105 some interest in a Islamic version of it as: ‘A movement to sever patriarchy from Islamic ideals translation from the Persian, the French and sacred texts and to give voice to an ethical and egalitarian vision of publisher Robert Islam can and does empower Muslim women from all walks of life to make Laffont eventually dignified choices’ (Mir-Hosseini 2006, 645). Third, it benefits from Iran’s published in 2015 a 110 THE GLOBAL CIRCULATION OF AN IRANIAN BESTSELLER ...... 3 Laetitia Nanquette translation from the entering the global market due to the increasing professionalization of the English, with an Iranian literary field. 115 exotic veiled woman fi on the cover different Most signi cant, perhaps, the circulation of this bestseller demonstrates from the English and how a subaltern point of view on feminism, one based on the values of other editions. Islamic feminism and insisting on the idea that Islam is compatible with feminism, has the agency to interpolate, to use Bill Ashcroft’s term, dominant 120 systems of publication and circulation as well as the potential to transform western expectations of Muslim women. Ashcroft helpfully reminds us that Gayatri Spivak’s ‘phrase “the subaltern cannot speak” need not imply that the subaltern is silenced and has no voice whatsoever. Rather it suggests that 125 the voice of the subaltern does not exist in some space outside the dominant discourse’ (Ashcroft 2001,46).Inthiscase,theIranianwoman’s voice has to situate herself vis-à-vis the dominant discourse of feminism, and she ‘must insert that text into the western-dominated systems of publishing, distri- 130 bution and readership’ (48–49). The book’s distributed agency comes from a combination of writer, agent, translator and publisher that disrupts the genre of writing by and about a Muslim woman. Helped by its agents, this text by a subaltern writer gets an agency that other Iranian texts, 135 especially the ones written directly in European languages, might not achieve. In addition to this postcolonial framework, Pierre Bourdieu’s analysis of the fi literary eld is crucial to my understanding of the circulation of The Book of 140 Fate in the world of letters. Bourdieu (1996) shows that literary practices are constituted in a set of agents (authors, critics, publishers and so on) and of rules. These form a specific literary space, in which the battle for hegemony fl fi and authority is ongoing. Re ecting on the forces of the literary eld both 145 within Iran and in English-speaking countries will help to understand the dynamics of power at stake. Before studying The Book of Fate and its circulation, it is essential to situate the context of Iranian writings in English-speaking countries, which very 150 much equates to memoirs written in English. They are the primary reference and element of comparison to understand the circulation of texts from Iran in western countries. Indeed, Iranian diaspora memoirs have become a book industry in themselves, as evidenced by the hundreds of books published as 155 well as the critical discourse surrounding them, both for lay and academic readers.

160 Diasporic Iranian Memoirs: Tapping into an Anglo-American Imaginary

With the exception of a couple of canonical works, Iranian texts translated from the Persian have never sold well; modern highbrow texts have had 165 ...... interventions 4

3 3 Exceptions of very little circulation. What English-speaking readers have been reading highbrow texts which about Iran in recent decades are memoirs by writers of Iranian origin, 170 were bestsellers in Iran are Savushun by mostly women, written in European languages, particularly in English (Grass- Simin Daneshvar ian 2013; Fotouhi 2015; Rahimieh and Karim 2008). A prominent example is (Daneshvar and Zand Azar Nafisi’s Reading Lolita in Tehran (2003), which was a bestseller in the 1992) and poetry United States: it received enthusiastic reviews, sold almost a million copies, 175 collections by Forough Farrokhzad was a primary reading book in North American book clubs, and spent (Farrokhzad and seventy weeks on the New York Times bestseller list (Burwell 2014, 135). Wolpe 2007). The book also propelled Nafisi to prominence as a public figure. These kinds of memoirs primarily portray life in Iran before the Islamic revolution 180 and during the turmoil of the revolution, as well as adaptation to a new country (the United States, Canada, a Western European country, and more recently Australia). The narrators usually belong to the elite or the upper middle class, sometimes to religious minorities. They have endured difficult 185 times, been subjected to social downgrading, and are bitter about the new regime and an Iran that they no longer recognize. These texts, also called veiled memoirs by Gillian Whitlock (2007), have been criticized as orientalist, for playing the role of commodities for 190 western readers and reiterating orientalist constructions of Muslim women, which essentialize them and render them ‘other’ (Booth 2010; Taylor and Zine 2014). Whitlock (2007, 10) has studied how autobiographical narratives by Muslims, especially women, are marketed as valuable commodities, 195 become products of exotic consumption for the western reader, and are taken up in debates about the politics of identity in times of crisis. These books, which Whitlock calls soft weapons, featuring Afghanistan, Iran and

Iraq, use exoticism as a particular way of manufacturing otherness (13). 200 This exotic reading orientates readers’ actions; Reading Lolita in Tehran in particular has been taken up by conservative politicians to argue for the War on Terror (Burwell 2014, 147). Focusing speciﬁcally on Iran, Farzaneh Milani has argued similarly that 205 these narratives, which she calls hostage narratives or captivity narratives, depict Iranian women as ‘the ultimate prisoners in a giant gulag the size of Iran’ (2011, 25). She asserts that, after the US embassy hostage crisis in 1979–1980, many books were published catering to the US readership’s curi- 210 osity and were tailor-made for mass markets. They promote stereotypes about Iranians and Iranian women in particular and ‘leave out inconvenient facts and historic contexts’:

215 They present women in the role of victims and effectively dismiss their contributions to Iranian culture in favour of a master narrative of oppression and irrelevance, entrapment and imprisonment. Intentionally or not, they perpetuate a legacy of silence and insigniﬁcance where there is in fact a resolute struggle for freedom and 220 expression. (Milani 2011, 25) THE GLOBAL CIRCULATION OF AN IRANIAN BESTSELLER ...... 5 Laetitia Nanquette

Both Whitlock and Milani insist on the role played by the veil in these memoirs, which acts as the most common stereotype. The veil has dominated 225 the discourse on Muslim women and become the symbol of their oppression and seclusion. Indeed, it is striking that many Iranian diasporic memoirs use similar peritexts, the book cover often representing a woman veiled in a rather unusual way (e.g. on Marina Nemat’s book Prisoner of Tehran). The veiling 230 of the hair is mandatory in Iran, but women do not wear face veils, apart from 4 4 For a translation, a few restricted areas in some provinces like Khuzestan. AQ1 ¶ which is a cultural The fantasy for the reader is thus to lift the veil and break the boundaries of exchange, the 235 paratext has an this harem-like Orient (Dabashi 2006). The veil covers the individuality of increased relevance, women, as they all look the same, and are an image of something else behind as the text requires which the character disappears. Sanaz Fotouhi says: ‘Of all the Iranian more interpretation. women’s memoirs over the past several decades, more than half are presented Genette (1987) distinguishes between with a similar cover image of a sole woman with some sort of a veil’ (2011, 29). 240 the peritext, which Interestingly enough, diasporic memoirs are not distributed in Iran. They comprises cover, title, would have difﬁculty getting through the Iranian censorship process due to preface and notes, and the epitext, their negative portrayal of the regime, but the main reason is that they only which are comments cater to the expectations of western readers avid to explore the Other, speciﬁ- 245 on the book, such as cally the Iranian woman. There are degrees and variations in their stories, but author interviews and reviews. generally they offer a simplistic portrayal of Iran that would not satisfy Iranian readers. At this point it is necessary to give some context to the identity of Iranian 250 readers and to the Iranian book market.

The Iranian Book Market and Its Differences from Western Book Markets 255

The Iranian book market is not regulated by supply and demand alone, but by a complicated mix of state intervention, censorship and readers’ expectations. The market is constrained by several factors, the main one being censorship. 260 Each publisher needs to seek permission from the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance to publish a book. The book is scrutinized and can be banned altogether; often, the author is asked to change some of the content 5 The issue of (Atwood 2012).5 The process is slow and usually takes at least a couple of 265 censorship has been years, sometimes much more. The market is thus slowed down by state regu- addressed in novelistic form by lation. Second, the market is enclosed and restricted by sanctions. To translate Shahriar an Iranian book into English, the transactions linked to copyright, for Mandanipur instance, are made difficult by monetary restrictions imposed on Iran.6 If 270 (Mandanipur and the Iranian author is to get any money from the translated book, her royalties Khalili 2009). will need to be transferred through a western bank account. As such, even if 6 As Iran is not a cultural exchanges are made on a daily basis and are testified to by the book signatory to the Berne fi copyright agreement, studied here, they are impeded by political restrictions. A nal aspect that 275 it is not compelled to makes the Iranian book market different from western ones is that there are ...... interventions 6 buy rights from two segments in the Iranian literary field: texts supported by the state and foreign publishers to independent ones. Texts supported by the state have a specific apparatus 280 translate books into Persian and publish (publisher, networks, author in line with the Islamic regime), while indepen- them in Iran. dent texts rely on different networks for their production, distribution and However, increasing reception. In this essay I will focus on an independent text, as some studies number of publishers 285 have realized that this of state-backed bestsellers have already been published (Nanquette 2013). benefits neither the Iranian bestsellers, which I define as having important sales in the local Iranian literary field Iranian market and popular in the sense that people have adopted them and nor their presses, and talked about them, differ substantially from the definition of a bestseller in they do their best to comply with the western countries, which is derived from sales figures alone (Gelder 2004, 290 Berne agreement by 158). In the Iranian context, popularity is not necessarily linked to either buying foreign rights. entertainment value or to the characteristic of being ‘cheap’. The narrative of The Book of Fate is sophisticated and it might have the potential to become a classic, in that it would survive short-term success and could find 295 some space over time, at least in the Iranian canon. What is noticeable about this novel is that it does not belong to the most popular genres of bestsellers in western countries, namely romance, fantasy and thriller. Fantasy novels and thrillers are scarce in the Persian language. As for romances, 300 by the western definition of the term (Radway 1984), they have not made it into translation. Fahimeh Rahimi, whose bestselling texts are love stories with a happy ending and are comparable to western versions of romance, has not been translated, although she is one of the most popular authors in Iran. The Book of Fate shares 305 characteristics with the romance as it is about a woman and tells a story of transformation as the character becomes stronger throughout her life. But it also has striking differences from this genre: it narrates the life story of a woman more

than a love story between a man and a woman; it returns the reader to society 310 and does not provide an escape from daily life; and there is no happy ending.

A Text by and about a Woman

315 The Book of Fate is a novel set in twentieth-century Iran and narrates over fifty years the life of Massoumeh, a girl from a poor and religious family who is married to a communist after her family forbids her to marry her sweetheart. The man is a stranger and the family do not know he is a political activist. The narration follows her struggles to 320 get an education and a career and to look after her children by herself, when her husband Hamid proves his uninterest in family life, as well as the sacrifices made along the way. The book’s publication partially reflects the feminization of the field in Iran, as more females are active in the literary field today than ever before in 325 Iranian history. A journalist’s report on this states: ‘Over the past decade, Iran’sbest- selling fiction lists have become dominated by women, an unprecedented development abetted by recent upheavals in Iranian society’ (Fathi 2005). She adds that women publish as much as men in today’sIran,‘but the women’s books are outselling the men’sbyfar’. Gisèle Sapiro recognizes the feminization of authors and mediators as 330 THE GLOBAL CIRCULATION OF AN IRANIAN BESTSELLER ...... 7 Laetitia Nanquette

a global sociocultural process, and contemporary Iran in some measure follows this trend (Sapiro 2008, 395). However, it is primarily in the genre of popular literature 335 that women writers are successful, while men still largely dominate highbrow literature. The cultural capital described by Bourdieu (Bourdieu, Passeron, and Nice 1977) and the power that goes with it continue to go to men. Book writing is still male dominated, as women write only 20 per cent of published books in all categories, 340 including the very proliﬁc ﬁeld of religious writing (Marchant 2015, 32).

An Iranian Bestseller’s Circulation in Iran 345

Like many independent books, there have been issues with the publication in Iran of The Book of Fate. It was initially denied permission to be published, then a first edition was released taking advantage of reformist president Mohammad Khatami’s 350 ruling which stated that each publisher could print a few books without seeking the consent of the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance (Daghighi 2005). By 2005 the book had been printed in fourteen editions, but it then lost its permission to print under the presidency of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (Mardomak 2010). It received 355 permission again to be printed after the Nobel Peace Prize-winning lawyer Shirin Ebadi defended its case legally. By spring 2015 it had been printed in twenty-eight editions. However, despite its huge success among readers, it did not win any literary prizes and it has received mixed reviews from critics, many of whom dismissed it as 360 ‘popular’, as explained by the publisher Yussef Alikhani: ‘In Iran, nobody took The Book of Fate seriously, some even made fun of it and branded it “popular”’ (‘ameh pasand)(2013). One article shared on the Jire-ye ketab website is headlined ‘Is The Book of Fate a masterpiece or crap?!’ (Shahrir 2009). However, others sup- ‘ 365 7 Delightful and – 7 frank. A bold and ported it from the start, most notably Bokhara a leading cultural magazine. sincere portrayal of Yussef Alikhani also supported it and published an interview with the author injustices so masterful (Alikhani 2010). that no oppressive Parinoush Saniee is a sociologist and psychologist. She insists in interviews that court can logically or 370 openly ban its her novel is a documentary about a certain type of woman who has not had the publication. Tyranny opportunities available to the younger generation. She thought she would have openly admissible in difficulty publishing an academic book on the subject and decided to write a backward societies novel (Daghighi 2005). She also states that her novel shows the consequences towards women and 375 yet the overwhelming of the status of women in Iran better than she could with numbers and reports: protection offered to men by the “current tradition” are Even if I was able to publish my research it could only be reports, for instance, on the articulated through percentage of girls who had an arranged marriage in Iran … However, through the 380 fictional characters. medium of a novel I was able to show the consequences of this problem on women’s From start to finish, it life. (Iraj, Dekhodai, and Jafarian 2007) is a privation tale of Iranian women who will not give up and A major topic of discussion about this book within Iran has centred on the continue to strive for feminist message. But even though the discussion about Iranian women is 385 ...... interventions 8 their rights’ an important aspect, and political in itself, discussing it also serves to shadow (Shahrestani 2004, the other important aspect of the book: its otherwise political message and its 390 384). portrayal of political groups opposing the Islamic regime. The Book of Fate offers a nuanced message about Iranian women. In particular the ending, where Massoumeh continues to sacrifice herself and refuses to marry her childhood sweetheart because it would displease her children, can be seen as attenuating the 395 discourse of empowerment present in the rest of the narration.

The Book of Fate’s Translation into English and Its Circulation Abroad 400

I focus on English as this is the hyper-central language, but it is to be remembered that The Book of Fate has been published in more than twenty languages. While it benefits from global circulation, we can say with confidence that it has been written with an 405 Iranian national audience in mind and that its international circulation was not intended at the beginning, unlike diasporic memoirs. This significantly changes the way we can interpret its reception. In addition, because it was not meant for global ‘ distribution, the question of agency is complicated and we can conceive of a distrib- 410 uted agency’, which comes from a combination of writer, agent, translator and publisher effectively to disrupt the genre of writing by and about a Muslim woman. The Book of Fate benefitted from significant support for its circulation in English, especially thanks to its literary agent, Laura Susijn, and it enjoyed 415 success among international readers. It was first translated into Italian and won the Boccaccio prize for best international book in 2010. Prizes are important in literary fields in western countries and can be thought of as ‘the single

best instrument for negotiating transactions between cultural and economic, 420 cultural and social, or cultural and political capital – whichistosaythatthey are our most effective institutional agents of capital intraconversion’ (English 2005, 10). After it received this prize, it attracted the interest of the English publisher Little Brown, who commissioned Sara Khalili for the translation. 425 Later on, Little Brown secured funding for the translation and obtained the Sharjah International Book Fair Translation Grant Fund. Little Brown was committed to its marketing and there were several reviews in journals and 8Reviewshave newspapers worldwide, as well as interviews with the author.8 The copyright 430 appeared in the was then sold to a Canadian press, House of Anansi, for sale on the North Guardian and the Star, as well as newspapers American market, but this press did not support it as much in terms of market- in the Persian Gulf ing and it has not been as successful on that continent. The book continues region, in Australia, in nonetheless to be talked about and to be reviewed, especially as a comment Canada and on 435 webzines like www. on Iranian women and their role in society. forbookssake.net. As translation is an adaptation for a foreign audience, this Persian text has There are reviews on been selected for English-speaking audiences and adapted in the process of its Amazon, and ‘ Goodreads had more transformation into an English cultural product. Lawrence Venuti argues translation with its double allegiance to the foreign text and the domestic culture is a 440 THE GLOBAL CIRCULATION OF AN IRANIAN BESTSELLER ...... 9 Laetitia Nanquette than 1,500 ratings as of August 2015, with 445 an average of 4.23 stars, as well as reviews writteninmany languages. The Book of Fate appeared on the list of World 450 Literature Today’s ‘75 Notable Translations 2013’, along with Ismail Kadare, Marguerite Duras and 455 Amos Oz. The most comprehensive interview of Saniee in English is with a Romanian journalist 460 (Foarfaˇ 2013).

465

470

475

Figure 1 Book cover of The Book of Fate by Parinoush Saniee.

480 reminder that no act of interpretation can be deﬁnitive for every cultural consti- tuency, that interpretation is always local and contingent’ (1998, 46). The peritext of this translation is a sign of this adaption for a foreign audience, and gives a clue about the content of the book and its discourse on women, who 485 are not exotic and silenced women, as opposed to most of the Iranian diasporic memoirs. The Book of Fate’s cover features a beautiful young woman showing a 9 9 This cover has also fair bit of hair under her loose scarf, and with a slight smile. been used for a book As veiling is compulsory in Iran, the woman on the cover is veiled, but in a by an Italian writer of 490 Iraqi origin in 2012 different manner from those on the covers of Iranian diasporic memoirs. The (Tawﬁk 2012). veil is not there to be lifted, it is part of daily life, and is not endowed with a particular meaning of imprisonment and backwardness. The translation of the book might then disturb orientalist expectations about Iranian women. We need to keep in mind, however, that this difference in veil covers might 495 ...... interventions 10

not be obvious for general readers, as we are still looking at a veiled woman. Also, the book has been produced with these expectations in mind, occluding 500 the political trajectory of the text.

Localization Processes in the Reception of The Book of Fate Abroad 505

Anthony Pym’s term of ‘localization’ (2004, 1) illuminates the movement of this Persian text to an English context, which loses in the process its political argument. In the case of The Book of Fate, there are two interconnected local- 510 ization processes: the simplification of its discourse to a feminist discourse and the erasure of its otherwise political discourse. Within Iran, The Book of Fate has been valued for its take on Iranian society and politics, including the status and role of women. It has been 515 called a ‘documentary’ (Etemadi and Dehbashi 2004–2005, 270) and a ‘political–social novel’ (Daghighi 2005). However, this insistence on women was not exclusive. In the interview by Daghighi, there is an insistence on the book’s accurate portrayal of opponent groups to the Islamic regime like the Tudeh 520 (the communist party) to which Hamid belongs, and the People’s Mojahedin of Iran, an Islamist–Marxist group, to which Massoumeh and Hamid’s first son, Siamak, belong. In fact, one could argue that the feminist message of ’ the book, although nuanced by the ending that suppresses Massoumeh s 525 desires, is used by the author to shadow its other important political aspects. However, it has become a feminist reading primarily when read by English-speaking audiences, both general readers and critics, because this is a discourse to which such readers can relate. Consequently, the feminist 530 impact of the book has been assessed quite differently when it comes to its conclusion. Many reviews by English-speaking readers said the ending of the book disappointed them, as they expected a happy ending, along the 10 This comes from 10 romance line. After having resisted her family, succeeded in getting an edu- 535 an extensive survey of cation, and becoming independent through her work, Massoumeh sacrifices reviews by western readers in English, her happiness again and decides to renounce her childhood sweetheart a French and German second time because her children find it inappropriate for an old woman to on Goodreads and marry. As such, she surrenders to the social norms upheld by her children. Amazon. For 540 example, Amazon. This disruption of the expectations of the happy ending links to other non- com, Pizard, 08/03/ western romances, for example Vikram Seth’s A Suitable Boy (1993). 2014: ‘I was really Though that novel begins and ends with marriages, it is about settling for disappointed when I 11 fi the best suitor according to circumstances, not about passionate love. came to the nal 545 page; disappointed in One of the most common comments about The Book of Fate by western her, simply because I readers is how it has been an eye-opener, especially the realization that wanted her to accept things taken for granted in western countries have to be fought for in countries Saiid’s love and 12 proposal and live like Iran. It has also been read as a comment on Iranian society and a way to happily ever after … understand it, especially its women.13 An interview with the English translator 550 THE GLOBAL CIRCULATION OF AN IRANIAN BESTSELLER ...... 11 Laetitia Nanquette but it wasn’t meant to Sara Khalili on 22 July 2014 confirmed the importance of this feminist reading ’ be. for the western context. Khalili said she was interested in this book and 555 11 The link between accepted the offer to translate for three reasons: she was interested in the romantic love and story of Massoumeh as a woman and her role in society; she was interested marriage is historically specific and restricted in the story of personal growth of a woman building a life and a career for to western cultures of herself; she also liked the retrospective view of what working-class society 560 the modern era. Layla experienced during the revolution. Khalili has translated many books from and Majnun,the the Persian for large and small presses, and chooses carefully the texts she classical Persian poem by Nezami, is about wants to work on and promote. Her choice of this text was deliberate and the impossibility for her insistence on its feminist aspects reinforces the trajectory of the book 565 the lovers to marry along this line. She played an important role in helping build the agency of because they are too passionate. Because of The Book of Fate in its global circulation. his madness, Majnun Whereas the book was read according to a strong political stance in Iran, is not a suitable English-speaking readers have not been so attuned to its political content. A 570 husband. review of The Book of Fate in the National, the English newspaper published 12 From Amazon.co. in Abu Dhabi, is a good representation of other reviews and readers on this uk, Elizabeth Jane point about the rather non-political content of The Book of Fate: ‘this is Greyling, 26/09/ 2014: ‘This very more a family saga than a political novel … one wonders what irked the 575 moving account of Iranian authorities quite so much to twice ban this largely routine genera- life as a young tional drama’ (20 April 2013). Some readers’ comments go in the same direc- woman in Iran enables one to realize tion, generally insisting on the glimpse it gives of life and politics in Iran but 14 the good fortune one oblivious to the sociopolitical details. Although there are not many com- 580 has to be female in a ments on political events in the book, the days of the revolution are actually world where one is not at the mercy of described in detail, especially at the university attended by Massoumeh, which one’s father, brothers is going through numerous sociopolitical debates and undergoing its own or husband, or even, revolution. But readers have not seen these details and therefore focus on ’ 585 come to that, one s the life story of Massoumeh as a struggling woman. mother.’ Indeed, the book comes with very strong views on politics and society, such as the 13 From Amazon. treatment of communist characters in the novel. Whereas the members of the Tudeh com, jane001, 18/10/ ‘ have been executed en masse by the Islamic regime and the party is prohibited today 2013: Wonderful 590 book about life for a in Iran, the depiction of the communist friends of Massoumeh’s husband is over- bright girl from a whelmingly positive. Massoumeh’s husband is a negative character, not because traditional Muslim family in Qum who of his political activities, but because he leaves her to cope by herself with family moves to Tehran and life and disappears for long periods of time. In addition, many characters belonging 595 is forced into an to the post-revolutionary Islamic establishment are portrayed as hypocrites who do ’ arranged marriage. not understand the true nature of Islam and of faith. The Islamic regime is a way for ‘The Book of Fate does pull back the veil them to achieve status and power, whereas true believers like Massoumeh might not on a world that for have all the outward appearances of practice but are faithful to the spirit of the reli- 600 most westerners gion. For a reader not aware of the political situation of the Islamic revolution and seems inaccessible and inhospitable. the post-revolution, this aspect is not obvious. However, it is a strong stance from the What Saniee gives us author to insist on the fact that political belonging does not matter when it comes to access to is an being good or bad, faithful or unfaithful. The fact that English readers do not see this authentic, insider dominant part of the book, which was arguably why it was censored for some time 605 ...... interventions 12 account of the life of (more than for its feminist discourse), points to their (understandable) lack of Iranian an Iranian woman political knowledge, which necessarily orientates the book in another and unique 610 spanning the last five decades’ (Duggan direction, the feminist one. While the text loses its otherwise political message, it 2013). has a political impact in its influence on western readers on the topic of feminism.

615 Interpolating the Dominant Discourse on Feminism and the Market of Texts about Muslim Women

14 From Amazon.co. There are a number of reasons for the The Book of Fate and other bestsellers’ 620 uk, current appearance on the English-speaking book market. One is that they booksandbeautylove, 18/05/2016: ‘It is a build on the successful trend of Iranian memoirs written in European remarkable story of a languages. A geographical and historical space has been created for Iranian country, of a nation bestsellers, which relies on western readers’ interest in Iranian women. They 625 and of one ordinary fi woman who just bene t from familiarity with Iran and Iranian women, as well as from an wants to have a exhaustion of the stereotypes present in these memoirs. Western readers are happy family and live interested in narratives about or by Muslim women (Milani 2011). Translated her life with dignity. The journey of the from the Persian, not written directly into English, Iranian bestsellers achieve 630 heroine follows the different objectives and their good reception seems to show that readers are changes of regimes, of ready to read new stories about Iranian women. Indeed, bestsellers from public opinions and Iran take a different position from diasporic texts on many counts: in terms of how under different of genre (novels versus memoirs); in the characters they portray (religious 635 governments things women versus non-religious ones); and in their discourse (overall support of which were taken for Iran versus criticism and often demonization of Iran and its regime, as well granted can change overnight.’ as Islamic feminist discourse versus western feminist discourse). Even if a text like The Book of Fate is at the opposite end of the spectrum in sociopo- 640 litical terms from Reading Lolita in Tehran, it benefits from the success of Nafisi’s book. The Canadian publisher of The Book of Fate actually applied a similar strategy to that of the publisher of Reading Lolita in Tehran by promoting it among book clubs, and offering questions alongside 645 15 http://www. the text.15 So although content and reception might be different, marketing houseofanansi.com/ can adopt similar strategies, since there is a shared desire to make the text assets/productassets/ bookoffate/book readable to western audiences. offate_rguide.pdf, Another linked reason for these bestsellers arriving in English-speaking 650 accessed 14/10/14. markets at this time is that, contrary to the diasporic memoirs, which show secluded exotic women, Iranian bestsellers describe powerful female figures and offer an alternative feminist discourse at a time when it is needed in the West and when feminism is no longer monolithic. Islamic feminism is today 655 a recognized discourse among feminists and essential to understand these bestsellers. Women’s presses in Iran have played a very important role in this discourse, with newspapers like Zanan and Zan-e Rooz. Margot Badran argues that, contrary to western feminisms, which are very often secular, religion has always been integral to the feminisms promoted by Muslim women, be they 660 THE GLOBAL CIRCULATION OF AN IRANIAN BESTSELLER ...... 13 Laetitia Nanquette

‘secular feminists’ or ‘Islamic feminists’ (Badran 2009, 2). Islamic feminism is typically at odds with the ‘global sisterhood discourse’ which ‘posits a sense of 665 solidarity between women based on assumptions about shared gender, without posing questions about race, class, imperialism and power’ (Burwell 2014, 141). Related to this notion of global sisterhood is what Chandra Mohanty has called ‘Third World difference’, which deﬁnes the 670 Third World Woman as a monolithic subject without agency and in need to be saved by First World feminists (Mohanty 2003). Ziba Mir-Hosseini insists on the plurality of the feminisms promoted by Muslim women: 675 As with other feminists, their positions are local, diverse, multiple and evolving … They all seek gender justice and equality for women, though they do not always agree on what constitutes justice or equality or the best ways of attaining them. (Mir-Hosseini 2006, 640) 680

Mir-Hosseini, working specifically on Iranian feminism, insists on the positive impact of the revolution and its brand of political Islam: ‘the impact of the revolution on women has been emancipatory, in the sense that it has paved 685 the way for the emergence of a popular feminist consciousness’ (1996, 164). The main character of The Book of Fate, Massoumeh, as well as other female characters like Parvaneh, works along feminist lines by fighting for fi her right to study, rst at school, then at university, and then to work and 690 gain financial autonomy. The book is full of comments on Massoumeh’s struggle to change her situation as a girl and then a woman. When she is at secondary school, she stands up to her brothers and mother who want to fi marry her off, and is determined to nish secondary school, with the help 695 of her father. Later on, when she gets married to a political activist, although the marriage is not happy, he encourages her to study and fight for her rights as a woman. Hamid says: ‘Women are the most oppressed people in history. They were the first group of humans to be exploited by another group. They 700 have always been used as a tool and they continue to be used as a tool’ (Saniee and Khalili 2013, 104). This part of Hamid’s character is described in positive terms by the narrator and reinforces Massoumeh’s ideas and actions to take control of her life. The 705 character of Parvaneh, Massoumeh’s best friend, is also a strong emancipated girl and woman, who pushes her to follow her wishes. For a woman from a conservative and lower-class family, the revolution has been an empowering movement for Massoumeh, especially as veiling allows her to go outside the 710 home. ‘Many women today owe their jobs, their economic autonomy, their public persona, to compulsory hejab’ (Mir-Hosseini 1996, 159). Indeed, without the protection of the veil, Massoumeh’s family would never have allowed her to go to school. While she gains her independence from her 715 interventions...... 14

family when she gets married, the veil also gives her the possibility to work outside home. 720 In Iran Islamic feminism is facilitated by the fact that since the Islamic revolution and its realization of political Islam, it argues from inside the Islamic discourse and has legitimacy; it is not an oppositional discourse: 725 The process set into motion when the Islamic Republic was born … has inadver- tently been nurturing an indigenous ‘feminism’ which is as much rooted in Iranian family structures as it is in the interaction of Islamic and western ideals of womanhood. It could emerge only after challenging and rejecting the state-sponsored and 730 western-inspired ‘feminism’ of the Pahlavis, as well as the liberal–leftist feminism of 1970s women’s liberation, and yet in the process assimilating some of the features of both. (Mir-Hosseini 1996, 165). 735 Nima Naghibi rightly insists on the role played by Iranian elite women before the revolution in the discursive match between feminism and modernity: ‘By positioning the Persian woman as the embodiment of oppressed womanhood, western and elite Iranian women represented themselves as epitomical 740 of modernity and progress’ (Naghibi 2007, xvii). This is still the case for diasporic women writers, who usually belong to privileged classes, and continue to link feminism to modernity and westernization. A novel like The Book of Fate represents a different form of feminism emerging from the 745 popular and middle classes. We see this particular form of Islamic feminism very clearly in The Book of Fate, as Massoumeh argues against the most conservative proponents of the

regime, and defends her position and will to be independent, as that of a 750 true believer. The discourse of this bestseller along feminist lines is thus another reason why it has been successful in western markets. The Book of Fate offers a nuanced portrayal of Iran and shares a complex vision of Iranian women. It portrays women who are religious but unconventional char- 755 acters, and who do not hesitate to question the Islamic regime’s mandates. Fotouhi argues the turmoil following the 2009 presidential elections in Iran, when women were seen protesting and no longer appeared as silent, marked a shift in the way Iranian women were seen in the West (2011, 35). I agree 760 with her analysis and see the circulation of videos and news about protesting Iranian women as a preparation for a new image of them. Bestselling texts like- wise nuance the image of the Iranian woman by providing multiple images of her. Written in Iran and translated into English, they offer different kinds of 765 stories and participate in a global trend of reading about Iranian women abroad, which is evolving towards non-exotic discourses. They prove that, thanks to literary agents, publishers and translators, a subaltern point of view – that of Islamic feminism – can interpolate the dominant systems of publication and transform western expectations of Muslim women. 770 THE GLOBAL CIRCULATION OF AN IRANIAN BESTSELLER ...... 15 Laetitia Nanquette

Finally, in addition to this alignment with a western readership, a combination of factors has made the circulation of these texts outside of Iran poss- 775 ible, all linked to the emergence of an Iranian literary system more integrated into global processes. The Book of Fate, for example, benefitted from the work of a literary agent who sold its rights to twenty-five publishers. Literary agencies and agents are new additions to Iranian literary institutions. Until 780 around five years ago, apart from children’s books, which started the trend slightly earlier, they did not exist. The development of literary institutions like literary agencies contributes to this professionalization of Iranian literature, which might thus be more equipped to compete on a global scale and 785 to interpolate markets like the Iranian diaspora memoirs published in western countries. Although Iranian bestsellers are not (yet) written for an international audience, literary practitioners like agents and publishers have seen international possibilities in them and have demonstrated that they can 790 interpolate the dominant market of texts. A text like Saniee’s contributes to the diversification of what Iranian literature means abroad. Whereas most general readers would think of Iranian diasporic memoirs or maybe about poetry when Persian literature is mentioned, 795 the translation of The Book of Fate shows that literary production in Iran is diverse and does not have to be exotic. It can be about topics that many readers feel close to and in a form that many readers are used to: the novel about a strong woman. As such, it disrupts western expectations about 800 Muslim women, as well as interpolating the dominant texts written about them. This text on a religious but unconventional and strong woman, well received by English-speaking audiences, adds to the global discourse on fem-

inism. Although the lack of understanding of the Iranian cultural context by 805 western readers leads to a certain displacement with familiar western discourses like feminism and a loosing of the otherwise political message – especially in the portrayal of politcial groups – it is testimony to the fact that subaltern discourses and publications have the agency, thanks to a 810 whole array of literary agents, writers, translators and publishers, to interpolate dominant discourses and systems. It could be that the Iranian bestsellers published in the last few years reshape cultural relations between English-speaking audiences and Ira- 815 nians. If we consider translation as a form of ‘soft power’ andanelement for cultural diplomacy, these texts become ways to achieve a more nuanced understanding of Iran, speciﬁcally of Iranian women, and are a good sign that the stereotypes of diasporic memoirs are challenged by 820 more complex representations. Since texts from Iran become representations of the country for the western reader, it is interesting to see the shiftinitsportrayalinrecent years, to which the text studied in this essay contributes. This overlaps in signiﬁcant ways with better international relations between Iran and the West. 825 ...... interventions 16

Acknowledgements 830 This essay has beneﬁted from the contributions of many. I would particularly like to thank Paul Dawson and his Reading group on the novel, Michelle Langford, Omid Azadibougar, and Bill Ashcroft for constructive criticism, as well as Setayesh Nooraninejad for her research assistance. 835

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