'Ghosts of Revolution' Still Haunt Book Author

It was nearing 6 p.m. Saturday when Shahla told a story that made her pause.

She sat with her back to a tall bay window on the second floor of the , the snow falling silently behind her. Several dozen attendees sat patiently, some leaning forward in their chairs, others sitting back with their hands over their mouths.

“When I was delivered to the interrogator…he received me with the exclamation, ‘Oh, finally, there she is!’” she said, reading from her new book, “Ghosts of Revolution.”

“But he continued offering me more obscene curses spiced by his dirty, sexual, penetrating stare."

She paused, looked up at her audience and said, “I’m sorry, it is not something easy to read.”

Talebi was imprisoned in Iran, first from 1977 to 1978 and again from 1983 to 1992, for her political views and her interest in leftist literature.

Labeled a “potential threat,” she underwent psychological and physical abuse under both the regimes of the Shah and the Islamic Republic.

Saturday night at the Penguin Bookshop, Talebi read several passages from her book, which details her story as a political prisoner. She also answered audience questions about her experience, the role of women in Iran, the political consequences of oil, and the current situation in the Middle East.

“How have you dealt with your anger?” said Jay Carson, who sat in the front row.

“I had to envision that I had the power to do whatever I wanted in retaliation, and then the anger was gone,” she said. “Revenge defeats the fight. It’s not an issue of forgiving and forgetting. It’s an issue of breaking these viscous cycles.”

For the last two weeks Talebi, now a professor of religious studies at Arizona State University, has resided on the Robert Morris University campus through the Rooney International Visiting Scholar Program, which seeks to foster diversity and scholarly activities on campus.

Carson, the vice president of institutional advancement at RMU, attended the event because of his ties to the university and his personal interest in her topics.

“I asked her a hard question tonight, and I thought she had a beautiful answer,” he said. “I think that she’s so honest and so brave. She’s kind of done therapy for herself in that she has grown as a person and evolved her way of looking at the world. I think it’s very impressive.”

Carson forged the relationship between RMU and the Penguin Bookshop, which  last summer began bringing published authors and lecturers from the university to speak in the store.

“It’s a really great way for RMU to be a presence in our community and for us to bring in scholars who might not have found us otherwise,” said Maryanne Eichorn, the bookstore’s general manager.

The Penguin Bookshop will host upcoming Rooney Scholar Brenda Flanagan, whose work focuses on Caribbean and African-American literatures and creative writing, at 6 p.m. Fri., March 18.