Scarsdale Adult School Catalog Spring/Summer 2025
Book Discussion with Roya Hakakian: Immigrant Chronicles Author Roya Hakakian leads three book discussions of her own works that address issues of exile, displacement, political and religious persecution, and the struggles against authoritarianism. Each session may be taken individually. For an optimal experience, register for all three classes at once to save $15: Immigrant Chronicles Series • $105
Journey from the Land of No: A Girlhood Caught in Revolutionary Iran (2004) Hakakian’s memoir details the rise of Islamic fundamentalism in her birth country in the aftermath of the 1979 revolution. She was twelve years old and part of the very small Jewish population in Iran who witnessed the iron fist of the Islamic fundamentalists when the revolution swept through Tehran. Poignantly and painfully, Hakakian reveals an Iran most readers have not encountered and re-creates a time and place dominated by religious fanaticism, violence, and fear with an open heart. Wednesday, June 4 • 11:00am-12:30pm • Shaarei Tikvah • Course 13342 • $40
Assassins of the Turquoise Palace (2011) Hakakian’s second book, hailed as both a thriller and a suspenseful courtroom drama, is the account of the 1992 murders of four Iranian-Kurdish leaders in Germany, the investigation that ensued, and the four-year trial that culminated in an historic judgment. On the evening of September 17, 1992, eight leading members of the Iranian and Kurdish opposition had gathered at a little-known restaurant in Berlin when they were ambushed and four of them shot dead. Over one hundred other Iranian exiles similarly had been assassinated or disappeared since the rise to power of Ayatollah Khomeini in 1979. One of the survivors of the shooting along with the widow of one of the victims and a handful of reporters, attorneys, and fellow exiles, began a crusade for justice. An undeterred federal prosecutor and a patient chief judge took over the case, resulting in a verdict that marks the only time that a non-democratic regime had been put on trial for the blatant violation of international law and represents the only instance of Western success against Iran’s ruling clerics.
Wednesday, July 16 • 11:00am-12:30pm • Shaarei Tikvah • Course 13343 • $40
A Beginner’s Guide to America (2021) Called a “love letter” to American democracy and written in the form of a guide for the newly arrived, this book portrays what immigrants love about the country, what they miss about their former homes, the cruelty of some Americans, and the unceasing generosity of others. She discusses race, sex, love, death, consumerism, and what it is like to be from a country that is in America’s crosshairs. Her tenderly perceptive and surprisingly humorous account invites us to see ourselves as we appear to others, making it possible for us to rediscover our many American gifts through the perspective of the outsider. Wednesday, August 8 • 11:00am-12:30pm • Shaarei Tikvah • Course 13344 • $40
ROYA HAKAKIAN is an acclaimed writer, lecturer, and journalist. Born and raised in a family of Jewish educators in Tehran, Hakakian arrived in the US as a refugee in 1985 and later became a naturalized US citizen. Prior to writing prose in English, Hakakian published two collections of poems in Persian and has been included in numerous anthologies of Iranian literature. She is a former associate producer at CBS’s 60 Minutes. She speaks on the subject of the Middle East and human rights and has been a guest on all the principal networks and radio stations. Her opinion pieces and essays have appeared in numerous media outlets and journals. She is a founding member of the Iran Human Rights Documentation Center, is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and has served on the board of Refugees International and the editorial boards of both the American Purpose and World Affairs. She has been a fellow at City College of CUNY, Yale University’s Davenport College, the SNF Agora Institute at Johns Hopkins University, and she was awarded the 2008 Guggenheim fellowship in nonfiction.
www.ScarsdaleAdultSchool.org • (914) 723-2325
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