Women in Exile

If, as has been said, exiles, refugees and emigrants are the defining figures for the 20th century, the 13 women of "Women in Exile" give life to the metaphor. Their stories offer an opportunity to witness the harrowing experience of flight and dislocation and the resilience of the human spirit.;"I am an exile", writes Mahnaz Afkhami. "I have been in exile for 15 years. I have been forced to stay out of my own country, Iran, because of my work for women's rights. I recognised no limits, ends, or framework in this work outside those set by women themselves in their capacity as independent human beings. The charges against me are 'corruption on earth' and 'warring with God'. Being charged in the Islamic Republic of Iran is being convicted. There is no defense or appeal, although I would not have known how to defend myself aganst such a grand accusation as warring with God anyway. There has not been a trial, not even in absentia, and no formal conviction. Nevertheless, my home in Tehran has been ransacked and confiscated, my books, pictures and mementoes taken, my passport invalidated, and my life threatened repeatedly".;Attempting to come to terms with her own life in exile, Mahnaz Afkhami sought out and talked with 12 other women, from all parts of the globe, most now settled in the United States. With her, we meet: Samnang of Cambodia, survivor of a bloody march to nowhere who now teaches preventive health practices; Azar, whose flight took her through the Iran-Turkish mountains on horseback, protected by no government, sought by two, who now manages a major publication programme and two healthy children; Maria Teresa, beaten, raped and tortured in El Salvador after the assassination of her husband, who now travels around the world on behalf of human rights; Ngoc-Ho, a doctor in Vietnam, whose small child did not survive a six-day flight by boat, who is now a leader in the Vietnamese community as well as a successful pediatrician; and Alicia, once one of the "disappeared" in Argentina, who has earned a master's degree and published books of prose and poetry. Others came from Africa, China, Russia and the Middle East. They are Buddhist, Muslim, Christian, Jewish and atheist. Their formal education ranges from the highest academic degrees to bare literacy.