Reading Journey
Iran: From Mythology to Movement
Iran: From Mythology to Movement
Nothing comes out of the ether. The narrative of Iran as a "rogue state" or "axis of evil" was built deliberately — and it begins with a coup most Americans have never heard of.
This reading journey starts in 1953, when the CIA overthrew Iran's democratically elected government to protect oil interests. It moves through the graphic novel that became a generation's introduction to the Islamic Revolution, into classic Persian satire as cultural survival, and ends with contemporary women-led resistance.
From CIA intervention to the Women, Life, Freedom movement — follow the full arc from seeing the mythology to raising the future.
All the Shah's Men
Persepolis
A paranoid patriarch convinced the British are out to get him.
READ – REFLECT → RESIST
My Uncle Napoleon
She posted a photo without her hijab. It became a revolution.
READ – REFLECT → RESIST
The Wind in My Hair
Department of Childish Revolution
For the adults raising the future:
An Iranian girl in America, missing home. The beach helps.
READ – REFLECT → RESIST
Saffron Ice Cream
Iranian American in 1979. Her country is on the news. Not in a good way.
READ – REFLECT → RESIST
It Ain't So Awful, Falafel
Half-Iranian, depressed, going to Iran. He finds himself there.
READ – REFLECT → RESIST
Darius the Great Is Not Okay
An Iranian family in California. Dad is an eternal optimist.
READ – REFLECT → RESIST
Funny in Farsi
Resistance starts at storytime.
Iranian kids grow up navigating two worlds — the one their parents left behind and the one framed by headlines. These books give them language for both. From saffron-scented memories to graphic novels about revolution, this is how you teach nuance before the news cycle flattens it.
Age-appropriate. Ideology-unapologetic.
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