Azadeh Moaveni’s literary work, Lipstick Jihad, is a mirror image of the underground youth culture which prevails in the land of Tehran in response to the hard-line restrictions of the religious helms. She interprets it as a form of jihad or religious war with these conservatives who constrict the society with their directives. She is outraged by the moral policing of the authority and is taken aback by the cynic resignation of her companions who live back there. The author delves deep into the gazillion restrictions which are placed on the women folk of the society in Iran. The work is an exploration of the expression of the liberated human spirit which cannot be contained by any societal shackle.
She is a very keen observer of the details and successfully brings out the varied differences between the Western and the Iranian cultures. The literary work documents the various contradictions and ironies of the mundane life in the city of Tehran. There, the ladies and the men ride on the same motorcycle, but find themselves in segregated lines in the passport office. In Tehran, there are a lot of restrictions on inter-sexual relationships which is supposedly meant to uphold decency. However, it is these restrictions which have triggered off the carnal instincts of the commoners who seem to be preoccupied with sex.
At a point of time, women started wearing lipsticks, in extreme opposition to the fabricated standards of decency and normative behavior. Illegal satellite dishes became popular among the people and the authoritative line which separated the two sexes got blurred on the initiative of the people. The book documents the triumph of free spirit in the face of innumerable restrictions by the institutionalized authority.
Works Cited
Henderson, Bejhat. “Review: Lipstick Jihad: A Memoir of Growing Up Iranian in America and
American in Iran.” Off Our Backs 35.7/8 (2005): 61-62. Print.
