Writing Outside the Veil Literature by Women of the Iranian Diaspora

Writing Outside the Veil is the first full-length study of Iranian immigrant literature. The phenomenal success of Azar Nafisi?s 2002 memoir Reading Lolita in Tehran, followed by a spate of recent bestsellers like Funny in Farsi, Lipstick Jihad, and Persepolis, marks a period of unprecedented interest in writing by women of the Iranian diaspora. Largely ignored through the 80s and 90s, in the post-9/11 period Iranian immigrant women have emerged as important agents in framing how American readers see and interpret not only the history, politics, and culture of Iran but of the greater contemporary Middle East.