Wedding Song: Memoirs of an Iranian Jewish Woman

By Farideh Goldin

Book Overview

Farideh Goldin was born to her fifteen-year-old mother in 1953 and into a Jewish community living in an increasingly hostile Islamic state--prerevolutionary Iran. This memoir is Goldin's passionate and painful account of her childhood in a poor Jewish household and her emigration to the United States in 1975. As she recalls trips to the market and the mikvah, and as she evokes ritual celebrations like weddings, Goldin chronicles her childhood, her extended family, and the lives of the women in her community in Shiraz, a southern Iranian city. Her memoir details her parents' "courtship" (her father selected her mother from a group of adolescent girls), her mother's lonely life as a child-bride, and Goldin's childhood home which was presided over by her paternal grandmother. Goldin's memoir conveys not just the personal trauma of growing up in a family fraught with discord but also the tragic human costs of religious dogmatism. In Goldin's experience, Jewish fundamentalism was intensified by an Islamic context. Although the Muslims were antagonistic to Jews, their views on women's roles and their treatment of women influenced the attitude and practices of some Iranian Jews. In this brave and dispassionate portrayal of a little-known corner of Jewish life, Farideh Goldin confronts profound sadness yet captures the joys of a child's wonder as she savors the scenes and textures and scents of Jewish Iran. Readers share her youthful adventures and dangers, coming to understand how such experiences shape her choice.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1584654449
• ISBN13: 9781584654445
• Release Date: September 2004
• Publisher: Brandeis University Press
• Length: 220 Pages
• Weight: 0.80 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 6.1" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

wonderful memoir

In what is possibly the first memoir by and Iranian Jewish woman and one of the few Mizrachi memoirs available in English, Goldin describes her girlhood in the ghetto of the Shiraz; family, religion and culture; and how she broke tradition by first studying math at Pahlavi University, then visiting the U.S. and marrying an American. Goldin pays special attention to the particularities of women's lives. There are frank descriptions of first menstruation and first visit to the mikveh and the custom of adolescent marriage which persisted into her mother's generation (Goldin's mother was 15 when she gave birth to the author). By turns fiercely honest, subtle and lyrical, Wedding Song is an important addition to Jewish women's autobiographical literature. It is featured in the international bibliography of Jewish women's autobiography that I compiled with poet Irena Klepfisz and that is available on my website.

Wedding Song

Wow! I am married to an Persian Jew who emigrated here in 1979 to attend college. His family escaped Iran after the revolution. My mother in law(from Shiraz) recognizes Farideh's family from the photos. Her uncle's wife's mother is pictured in the book. This book tells a very real story about growing up female and Jewish in Iran. Descriptions of every day living, food, culture and history etc have been confirmed by my husband and his family as I asked questions while I read this book. It helped me to better understand their lives there and how they react and live in the U.S. today. This is a book that should be read by first generation Persians(I am buying copies for my neices) in the U.S., as well as students here who want to understand life inside Iran, past and present; Very enlightening and well written.

BREATH-TAKING!

Truth often lies in the overlooked details -- a look, a touch, athought unspoken. Farideh Goldin is a master at capturing thesedetails, vividly drawing readers into the hearts and minds of Jewishwomen in twentieth century Iran. Through first-person narrative, Goldinalso brings to life the historical relationship between Jews andMuslims in the Middle East, offering a fresh perspective on thestruggles between peoples of the region. Honest, bold, and gripping,Wedding Song is a must-read for people of all ethnicities. -- LoolwaKhazzoom

Bridge to a far away land and culture

Farideh Goldin has taken us on a journey to Shiraz, Iran. A journey different from many others, she reveals to us life behind the closed doors of a ghetto. Her use of Farsi expressions such as najess / inpure expose the inner workings of a Shi'te society, and provide us with an authentic exposure to life in non-western society. This book depicts life as lived by a woman who witnesses radical changes in a life time, changes that took a course of centuries in Europe. Goldin's story is the story of a brave woman re-evaluating norms that have been practiced blindly from generation to generation.

Heartbreaking, haunting, truly affecting

Goldin has written a richly evocative portrait of her life growing up in an Iranian Jewish family. Written openly and unabashedly from her perspective as first a young girl and later an adult woman, the complexity of emotion and a vividness of recollection makes the book truly stand out and offer something new in the literature of women's, Jewish and Iranian/Middle Eastern studies. The author clearly communicates both her pain and pride at her life and origins. A must-read for anyone interested in the lives of women in the Muslim Middle East or in the experiences of the Jewish communities there.