From Miniskirt to Hijab: The Story of a Girl Living in Revolutionary Iran

Join us for a presentation by Jacqueline Saper. Saper will discuss her recently published memoir, From Miniskirt to Hijab:  The Story of a Girl Living in Revolutionary Iran.
Saper, named after Jacqueline Kennedy, was born in Tehran to Iranian and British parents. At eighteen she witnessed the civil unrest of the 1979 Iranian revolution and continued to live in the Islamic Republic during its most volatile times, including the Iran-Iraq War. In 1979 under the Ayatollah regime, Iran became increasingly unfamiliar and hostile to Saper. Seemingly overnight she went from living a carefree life of wearing miniskirts and attending high school to listening to fanatic diatribes, forced to wear the hijab, and hiding in the basement as Iraqi bombs fell over the city. She eventually fled to the United States in 1987 with her husband and children after, in part, witnessing her six-year-old daughter’s indoctrination into radical Islamic politics at school. At the heart of Saper’s story is a harrowing and instructive tale of how extremist ideologies seized a Westernized, affluent country and transformed it into a fundamentalist Islamic society. In her recently published memoir, From Miniskirt to Hijab, Saper recounts her privileged childhood in prerevolutionary Iran and how she gradually became aware of the paradoxes in her life and community—primarily the disparate religions and cultures. Saper will discuss her experiences and offer insight into the global fight for women’s rights. A book signing will follow the presentation. Copies of From Miniskirt to Hijab will be available for sale at the event.

Jacqueline Saper is a frequent lecturer, panelist, and instructor for various organizations. Saper's opinion columns and essays appear in several publications including The Seattle Times, The Jerusalem Post, The Forward, Aish, American Thinker, and the Sun-Sentinel.

Admission: $10, payable at the door. Cash/Visa/MC. EHC Members free. EHC membership information and sign-up available online and at the event.

Reservations Recommended: Make a reservation online at: evanstonhistorycenter.org/all-events/