THE GOOD DAUGHTER : A MEMOIR OF MY MOTHER'S HIDDEN LIFE
by Jasmin Darznik

It all started with a photograph. The young girl pictured was thirteen years old and she was wearing a wedding veil. She was none too happy to start a life with a man that she barely knew who was so much older than her. It was common for the families to have these arranged marriages.
Jasmin Darznik found this photo when she was helping her mother, Lili move into a new abode in California. When Jasmin showed her mother the photograph, Lili refused to say anything. Six months later, the first tape (there would be ten, altogether) arrived in the mail and Lili's story of her previous life in Iran was revealed. It was quite tumultuous.
Males are favored much more than females in that kind of society. They are fawned over and treated like royalty and can do no wrong. The opposite sex, in the minds of the men, are only good for being a domestic servant and the earlier they are married off, the better.
And, so it was with Lili. When she was eleven years old and going to school, she was spotted by a man who decided that she was going to be his wife. (He was twenty-six at the time.) Two years later, barely an adolescent, the ceremony takes place. Lili has a daughter, Sara, at fourteen. Her life is a living hell. She is granted a divorce but is not allowed to take her daughter.
Lili goes back to school, which had been interrupted, and she soon goes to Germany to join her brother and studies to be a midwife. Her plan is to be able to support herself, go back to Iran and finally be a parent to Sara. Things don't always happen the way you want them to.
What an incredible book! I read it in two days mainly because I just could not put it down. Jasmin writes so beautifully about the women in her family and what they went through in their own personal lives.
The Good Daughter perfectly captures Iranian culture via its delectable food, the living arrangements amongst families, the age-old traditions and the inner strengths of females who are continually abused and yet always seem to rise above it.
The story captivated me until the very last page.
Highly recommended.