Prize-winning Iranian American author Dina Nayeri joins co-hosts Whitney Terrell and V.V. Ganeshananthan to discuss the complicated reality of survival on the ground during Israel’s recent bombing of Iran. Nayeri talks about the destruction leveled on Ardestoon, where her father’s family lives; her memories of running for bomb shelters during the Iran-Iraq war; and the current situation for her family in Iran. Nayeri explains how desperately Iranians on the ground want the Islamic State overthrown and the complexities involved in who would take charge should the regime topple.  Nayeri considers the gap between the mainstream media narrative of Iran as a devout Muslim nation and recent surveys indicating rising secularism in the country. She reflects on forty-plus years of the Islamic State in power—a small slice of Iran’s history, but a phase that has irreparably disrupted both the lives of those who left and those who stayed behind.  

To hear the full episode, subscribe through iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app (include the forward slashes when searching). You can also listen by streaming from the player below. Check out video versions of our interviews on the Fiction/Non/Fiction Instagram account, the Fiction/Non/Fiction YouTube Channel, and our show website: https://www.fnfpodcast.net/.

This podcast is produced by V.V. Ganeshananthan, Whitney Terrell, Hunter Murray, and Janet Reed.

Selected Readings:

Dina Nayeri

Who Gets Believed?: When the Truth Isn’t Enough

The Ungrateful Refugee: What Immigrants Never Tell You

Refuge

A Teaspoon of Earth and Sea

"Why Is Iran's Secular Shift So Hard to Believe?" New York Magazine 

"The True Nature of Iranian Values:  Rethinking a Country The West Thought It Understood" - The Globe and Mail

Others

Fiction/Non/Fiction Season 6, Episode 27: Manufacturing Lies: Dina Nayeri on How Our Cultural and Bureaucratic Norms Often Betray the Truth

Fiction/Non/Fiction, Season 6, Episode 4: Women Resisting Terror in Iran: Porochista Khakpour on the Historic Protests

Fiction/Non/Fiction, Season 1, Episode 23: Jasmin Darznik and Dina Nayeri on the 40th Anniversary of the Iranian Revolution

“Opinion | Between Bombs and the Regime, Iranians Face a Moral Paralysis,”  The New York Times 

The Daily Show - Iran: Weeks away from having nuclear weapons since 1995

"Visualizing 12 Days of the Israel-Iran Conflict" Al-Jazeera

“Iran Crackdown Deepens with Speedy Executions and Arrests,” ABC News

"Iran's 'Crown Prince' Calls for Supreme Leader to 'Face Justice,'" - USA Today

"Mapping the Israel-Iran Conflict," - The New York Times

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