Latifi, Afschineh 1969–

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Latifi, Afschineh 1969–

PERSONAL: Born 1969, in Tehran, Iran; daughter of Mohammad Bagher (an engineer and a colonel in the Iranian army) and Fatemeh (a schoolteacher) Latifi. Education: Old Dominion University, graduated, 1989; Wake Forest School of Law, law degree, 1992. Religion: Muslim.

ADDRESSES: Home—New York, NY. Agent—c/o Author Mail, Regan Books, 10 E. 53rd St., 7th Fl., New York, NY 10022.

CAREER: Tucker and Latifi (law firm), New York, NY, partner.

WRITINGS:

(With Pablo F. Fenjves) Even after All This Time: A Story of Love, Revolution, and Leaving Iran (autobiography), Regan Books (New York, NY), 2005.

SIDELIGHTS: Afschineh Latifi was ten years old when her father, a colonel in the army of the Shah of Iran, was arrested and executed following the rise to power of the Ayatollah Khomeini. Until then, the family had lived in comfort and security; after the execution, Latifi, her mother, her sister and two brothers lived in fear of the increasingly repressive regime of the Ayatollah. Eventually Latifi's mother became determined to get the two girls out of the country, to a place they could grow up outside the fundamentalist regime that had taken power in Iran. They went first to a European boarding school, and eventually to the home of an uncle who lived in the United States. The girls were young at the time, and although their mother had promised that the family would be reunited some day, they had to become unusually self-reliant at an early age. Several years after their escape from Iran, the girls were joined by their mother, and after several more years passed, the author made a return visit to her homeland. Latifi tells her family's story in her book Even after All This Time: A Story of Love, Revolution, and Leaving Iran.

Latifi's story is a highly dramatic one, yet she told an interviewer for the HarperCollins Web site that one of her aims in writing the book was to help readers understand that "at the heart of it all, even though we were Iranians, did not speak much of the language, had funny clothes, unshaved legs, and many other 'un-American' teenage characterstics, we were still really just teenagers—Teenagers, who enjoyed going to the Friday night football game and tried out for the cheer-leading squad. I also wanted to show that we were going through the same awkward transitions that teenagers go through no matter which continent they live on and what language they speak. Our issues were just compounded by unfortunate external factors." She has also stated that she wrote the book as a tribute to her mother's strength and courage.

Reviewing the book for Women's Wear Daily, Vanessa Lawrence noted that the author "narrates the tale with a mixture of distance and honesty." Maria C. Bagshaw, a contributor to Library Journal, credited Latifi with "poignantly" telling "both the good and the bad, the comical and the dramatic" aspects of her story. The Latifi family's courage and endurance in the face of great loss and hardship should stand as a "compelling testament to the dauntless nature of the human spirit," even in the face of great adversity, according to Booklist writer Margaret Flanagan. While a Kirkus Reviews contributor cited the book's "flat" quality, a Publishers Weekly reviewer recommended Even after All This Time as a "remarkable, resonating tale."