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We are excited to host Afarin Ordubadi Bellisario to discuss her new novel, Silenced Whispers. Come with your questions about the book, and stay to chat over tea and get your copy signed. Books will also be available for purchase at the event.
“Silenced Whispers tells the story of an Iranian woman's battle for freedom — personal and national — amid profound societal changes, and her forbidden love for a Russian reformer. It explores such themes as gaining agency, search for identity amidst transformation, and the clash between individual desires and societal needs at a time of profound change. These themes remain relevant in today's rapidly changing society, shedding light on issues such as East-West relations and the over hundred years of Iranian women’s struggle for independence.”
About the author: Afarin Bellisario was born and raised in Tehran in a family with its feet in the past and its head in the future: whereas her grandmothers could barely read, her university-educated father and uncles were prominent members of Iran's new technocratic elite. Her great-grandfather had 25 wives and concubines; she holds a PhD from MIT. She perceives this as progress. She began writing professionally in major women and youth publications and the literary magazine Ferdowsi at the age of 14, in pre-revolutionary Tehran. She came to the US to study and stayed when the Islamic Revolution happened. Most of her professional career has been spent in the high-tech world in both technical and business capacities. But she has continued writing. In 2013, her essay "Movies with My Aunt" was published in the anthology Love & Pomegranates, edited by M. N. Sayers. The Wall Street Journal and The Boston Globe have published several of her op-eds, and she writes regularly about the clash between tradition and modernity on Medium (Counterview). Through her writing, she actively seeks to create a conversation around the themes covered in her book, Silenced Whispers.