One of the cool things about being an English major is that you get to experience so many lives outside of your own, and all for class. Books can be the window into a different world, a different life, and a different person. Even with fiction, it is usually the author’s life and his/her experiences that tell the real story. Authors have the ability to use their own life experiences in order to create a situation that hooks the audience. And then there are the cases that the author actually discusses their own life in an autobiography or memoir.

      This is the case for Farideh Goldin, an Iranian Jewish woman born in Shiraz, Iran in 1953. Her family consisted of judges and leaders of the Jewish Community, and they obeyed strict social, cultural, and religious mores. When she was only eight years old her family moved out of the Jewish quarter to a Moslem neighborhood. It was here that she first began to experience anti-semanism. It was not until she attended an American style university in Iran that she began to be torn between her loyalty to her family and her western education that promoted individualism and self-reliance.
Farideh’s struggles to figure out what she wanted out of life, in accordance with what her family wanted, is the inspiration that caused her to actually write her own story. She is the author of two memoirs, Wedding Song: Memoirs of an Iranian Jewish Woman and Leaving Iran: Between Exile and Migration. Since writing her memoirs Farideh has given a number of lectures in order to give her audience a better understanding of Iranian culture.

     She conveys her cross-cultural perspective on issues, and leads participants to interact and shape their own skills for recording life narratives.
Bloomsburg English professor Dr. Ferda Asya will lead a reading and discussion session of Farideh’s first memoir, Wedding Song on Tuesday, March 27th. The discussion will be held at 4 p.m. in Centennial Hall 103. Everyone, English and non-English majors alike, are invited to participate in this session! Those who want to participate can send Dr. Asya an email at [email protected] by Monday, February 12th so that copies of Farideh’s memoir can be ordered in time.

     So why is all of this important? Farideh Goldin will be coming here, to Bloomsburg University, on Thursday, April 12th! She will be discussing her first memoir, Wedding Song. Her first event will be a question and answer session at 3:30 p.m. in Warren Student Services Center, room 004. Her second event is a lecture at 7:30 p.m. in McCormick Center 2303. So bring your questions and she’ll be sure to give you some great answers!

      As a student in Dr. Asya’s Jewish Fiction course, where we will be discussing Farideh Goldin’s memoir, I will be attending the answer and question session as well as the lecture. I am excited to learn more about Farideh Goldin’s life experiences and why she decided to write her memoirs, and you should be too! If you have not already read her memoir then attend Dr. Asya’s session ahead of time! And be sure to check out either one or both of Farideh’s events come April!