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Farhad Khosrokhavar

Avoir vingt ans au pays des ayatollahs. Vivre dans la ville sainte de Qom

• Farhad Khosrokhavar (avec Amir Mikpey)
  Paris, Editions Robert Laffont, 2009
  
  
  
  
  
  Being twenty years old in the country of the ayatollahs. Living in the holy city of Qom
  Qom is a city which is deeply religious and closed to the outside world; almost all the women wear the chador. A holy city in Iran, the capital of the ayatollahs, Qom is perceived by its youth as a place opposed to any sort of freedom and exceedingly boring. It is almost impossible to imagine what life for a 20 year old is like in a holy Shi'a city. In this overly -repressive order, everything is organized according to Islamic norms from family life and friends to leisure activities. The secularization of part of this youth is still in its infancy. Young people have no other option than to defy the taboos in secret; the older generation demonstrates their hypocrisy by pretending to be unaware of these deviations.
  This way of life which may seem to belong to another age is of interest to us also because it is the model for what is happening in the West in the outlying Muslim suburbs. This is particularly the case in matters of the relationship between the pure and the impure, the secularization of society and of customs, the question of the veil, of polygamy or of 'modesty' of women.
  This journey to the heart of fundamentalism is the outcome of three years of fieldwork.

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