As far back as I can remember, conversations with those in the know were always prefaced with the admonition that if complaints about the monarch reached SAVAK’s long ears, their lives and their family’s lives would be in great danger. As the 1970s unfolded, the talk became increasingly about His Majesty’s questionable ability to hold onto the reins of power. As 1978 approached, general talk of discontent was on the rise as people became bolder with their criticism of the ruling Pahlavis; hundreds of dissenters were rounded up and imprisoned. Those associated with the Shah were becoming ever more eager to leave the country. 

 

Immediately preceding the Islamic Revolution, I made my final trip to Iran and became painfully aware of the plight of Iranians in the face of unfolding chaos. I met Iranians who were desperate to leave the country as fast as possible. Some had paid retainers to US attorneys, hoping to obtain immigration assistance but never again heard from them. I returned to the US, determined to assist my countrymen and women in any way I could. I immediately transitioned from a practice of litigation and commercial transactions to immigration. I was the sole immigration attorney in Los Angeles at that time who spoke Farsi.                     

 

My office settled the first wave of Iranian families fleeing Iran, not knowing when, or if, it would ever be safe to return to their beloved homeland. Soon my immigration practice grew at a startling rate. The ability to receive legal assistance in their mother tongue and my knowledge of Persian customs helped make them feel comfortable and word-of-mouth regarding my successes rendered advertising unnecessary.  When, six days into the hostage crisis at the American Embassy in Tehran that lasted 444 days, President Carter order all Iranian students illegal here to be deported, I submitted close to 1,000 applications for asylum, managing to keep those students in the US until the crisis was over and the danger had passed. There were clients who lacked funds for payment for my services; no Iranian was turned away. My countrymen and women needed me, and I was only too ready to help them as my contribution to the war effort.   

​

As a young female Iranian attorney, I watched in disbelief as the country of my heritage, the country of my parents and the inception of my soul, descended into the abyss of darkness. 

 

Many Persians who entered the US (on various visas) shared unforgettable stories of rape, torture, imprisonment and execution. Anyone considered to be an infidel, that is, not in alignment with Allah due to any number of reasons, was killed. Factories, businesses and properties were taken from the affluent and added to the wealth of the mullahs. 

 

These horrible tales were consistent with those experienced by my own family members caught in their homeland: an uncle whose factory was seized and was executed by the theological regime because of his religion; a cousin detained and whipped for possessing magazines from the West; other family and friends abused; the lucky ones escaping Iran in creative ways or with the payment of handsome bribes. 

 

I had the opportunity to sue the Islamic Republic of Iran for expropriation (i.e., dispossessing) of properties on behalf of an Iranian plaintiff in the World Court at the Hague. Many people and businesses never sued and simply lost their assets. 

 

Stories I heard from our houseguests, from clients who escaped the stronghold regime of the mullahs, from my family and friends, have been joined with the unique insights gleaned from my travels through Iran and are braided into the three books that make up the Moon Trilogy: Persian Moon, Moon Child, and Moonlight.

 

The Moon Trilogy seemed to burst forth, honoring life, women and freedom, driven by my desire to explore the theme of women seeking a better life and yearning for freedom. 

​

It is a saga, a bicultural story that spans three generations of women as they meander through their lives, their paths colliding with reality. Each book can be read separately as well as in sequence.

​

Persian Moon gives ample space to the condition of women before the Islamic Revolution. Born in Iran’s repressive culture, Layla Saleh embodies the submissive woman who does what is expected of her. Layla symbolizes the women of Iran, subjugated by a male-dominated culture. #Women

​

A “good Muslim girl,” raised with all the usual myths, she travels to California to attend UCLA and comes to forever change her outlook on life as, for the first time, she navigates the challenges of being a bicultural woman. She interacts with men and is presented with the freedom to choose. Her choices lead to consequences, and upon her return home for a summer month, she must pay the price for her actions. She is unexpectedly forced to have a hymenoplasty and prevented from returning to Los Angeles. Handcuffed to Iran she aches to be free again. The story, with an ever twisting and turning plot, filled with surprises, is told against the sweeping backdrop of Iran’s history, its changing politics and controversial culture.

​

Among the many injustices of Iran’s male-controlled culture, none caught my attention as being more odious and barbaric than the practice of hymenoplasties. The procedure of surgically creating a new hymen has long reinforced men’s ability to control women by demanding that females remain virgin until marriage. No matter that the hymen is torn from climbing trees, ballet, riding a horse, or things other than intercourse. Any woman with a distended hymen is marked as a non-virgin and a non-virgin at marriage stigmatizes the family, causing shame and a sense of ignominy they are forced to endure while the victimized female is considered damaged beyond repair and unmarriageable; thus, the whispered, yet very real practice of hymenoplasty lives on. 

Hymenoplasties predates the theocracy and is a byproduct, not of Iran’s political or religious edicts, but rather a result of Iran’s cultural repression of women. 

 

When I heard about hymenoplasties, I was shocked. Though many of my short stories and poems had been published, this medieval practice propelled me to write Persian Moon, ultimately ripping away the polite façade of Iranian society to expose the subtle and not-so-subtle ways women have been victimized by the culture of Iran that has long favored males, girdling women’s natural desires in every which-way and ensuring they keep their virginity intact for marriage in exchange for the hope of having the security offered by a husband and home. Religious and social customs became fair game for dissection as well. 

 

The continued subjugation of women following the Islamic Revolution triggered my anger and I continued with the Trilogy, writing Moon Child. The Women’s Revolution followed with Moonlight and the search for freedom. 

 

It was time to publish the Trilogy. 

 

Moon Child is devoted to Jolie Gold who is raised in Beverly Hills and determined to lead her own life, choosing to take credit for both her mistakes and her tribulations. She is a free spirit who follows only her heart, accepting the responsibility of her decisions. She symbolizes the power we women can exert over our lives. #Life

 

The Moon Trilogy poses the question, are women born to be victims? The conflict between fate and freedom of choice is a major theme of the Moon trilogy and comes into sharp focus by the stories of the two heroines, Layla Saleh in Persian Moon and Jolie Gold in Moon Child. The choices they make shape their lives.

 

Moonlight, a gripping tale of survival, clearly illustrates the injustices perpetrated on women after the Islamic Revolution, when monstrous measures enacted by the religious ruling class and enforced by the Revolutionary Guards made an exposed ankle, a strand of hair or the sight of an arm reason for punishment. Almost overnight, Tehran, the city once known as, “the Paris of the Middle East,” was transformed into a reincarnation of a city in the Middle Ages. Iranians who had hoped for relief from the dictates of the monarchy were horrified to see their country thrown into the dark well of life ruled by mullahs who cared nothing of women and whose only goal has been, “to spread Islam around the world,” to quote Khomeini. Moonlight is devoted to the pursuit of freedom. #Freedom

 

The characters portrayed in the three novels of the Trilogy will live with you. Their emotions will resonate with you, for the universality of human emotions runs throughout the Trilogy. 

 

Every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of the geographical, political, cultural, legal, and religious cues all throughout the three novels of the Trilogy with the International House at UCLA being the sole imagined addition to the story. All else is bona fide, offering the reader a voyage to an exciting story, borne in historical reality, and emerging from an authentic backdrop that resonates in human passion, pain, loving, loss and the ache for freedom. 

 

Target is a stand-alone novel, a highly fictionalized, fun legal case headed by Alexa Starr, the female attorney who is hard of hearing and chased by her attractive Argentinian client. I enjoyed the chance to write a story that has humor and romance as well as a potentially chilling legal case. 

 

After a successful run as an attorney protecting the civil rights of others, I have retired to follow my passion. Though law has been my backbone, writing has always been in my blood. In writing these novels, I have given them my best as an artist and have taken a chance of something I deeply believe in. I believe deeply in the right and the need for healthy self-expression and hope that soon every Iranian will have that right. The opportunity to have these books available to the public is extremely rewarding and worth the somewhat monumental effort. I am the. Mother of two wonderful people and presently live in California. 

 

Please feel free to contact me with any comments.

 

I hope you enjoy Target and your journey through the Moon Trilogy. 

Guitta Karubian,

Los Angeles, California