Nick Pateras | The Ministry of Guidance Advises You to Not Stay
BOOK REVIEW
The Ministry of Guidance Invites You to Not Stay – Hooman Majd
A year’s worth of people-watching sets the stage for a glimpse into the ever-elusive Iran
My personal research on the Islamic Republic of Iran, supplemented with my recent visit in October, has given me to draw an obdurate conclusion on its portrayal in (Western) media: many outlets employ thick paintbrushes when publishing stories on the nation, and while that’s not to say there isn’t a semblance of truth in the imagery, the brushes do leave very unrefined, broad strokes. Hooman Majd’s book is one example I would identify as a less pixelated picture. An Iranian-American journalist, he describes how he spent a full year in the bustling zoo that is Tehran, purely to take in the people, the culture and the way of life which must often bypass the imagination of Westerners as they ingest monochromatic news of human rights abuses and nuclear arms development.
As an expat with domestic familial connections, Majd offers an intriguing insight into off-road topics such as the underground world of partying and drinking, as well as the ubiquity of Gashte Ershad, the ‘moral police’ who bark at women to ensure their hijabs are adorned properly. For what is essentially a regurgitation of a year’s worth of observation, Majd does well to avoid stalling the text’s flow throughout. He talks of the cultural penchant to think of life as ignoble, the ludicrous inflation-driven bank rates, and the government’s intentional slowing down of Internet speeds.
"Islamic ideals of the revolution had once been attractive enough to the population to induce them to support it."
Though this book does not attempt to be truly spellbinding, its approachable style and inclusion of historic context made it digestible and even somewhat politically edifying. However, it is also badly in need of an editor – Majd is frequently guilty of nonsensical run-on sentences, driven by a careless overuse of commas and hyphens. But on the whole, one must commend his initiative and courage, for as a previous critic of the regime he may have been risking his personal security, and that of his family, to share his experiences with his readers.
-NP, Nov. 2014