Nearly two decades after the Iranian Revolution of 1979, Azar Aryanpour speaks for the first time in Behind the Tall Walls, an autobiographical retrospective of the tumultuous events that resulted in the overthrow of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and the rise to power of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. Her husband, the former Minister of Health and Welfare under the Shah and an American-trained orthopedic surgeon who played a role in the real-life events chronicled in Ken Follett’s best-selling book On Wings of Eagles, was subsequently and wrongfully imprisoned and sentenced to life. Part memoir and part historical account, the book presents one upper-class Iranian family, members of a traditional society who became victims of the state and pawns in the transitory world of revolutionary power politics. Most of all, however, Behind the Tall Walls is the intimate story of one woman caught between clashing armies and conflicting ideologies.

The Iranian Revolution of 1979 challenged America’s position in the Middle East and stirred unrest throughout the world. Many books have been written about this explosive subject: books that detail the political, historical, and social dynamics behind the events and describe the global consequences of this upheaval. However, none of these works have highlighted the human dimension of the "Iranian Crisis" as intimately nor illuminated the facts as vividly as Behind the Tall Walls.

This book makes an important contribution by filling a major gap in understanding the impact of the Iranian Revolution on the lives of innocent people. A rich and moving tale of war, tragedy, and pain, it is also a tale of love, hope, and triumph, which will stay with the reader long after the last page is turned.

Azar Aryanpour was born to a prominent Iranian family of literary men and women. Graduating from high school in Tehran with highest honors, Ms. Aryanpour received a scholarship to continue her education abroad. She married a young physician, and together they left for the United States in 1957.

After studying English Literature at Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio for two years, the author attended the University of Pennsylvania and completed her studies with a degree in education at the University of Akron, Ohio.

Back in Iran, Ms. Aryanpour taught children's literature and philosophy of education at the College of Shemiran and the National University. She also worked as a free-lance writer and translated both How Man Became a Giant and part of The Ascent of Man from English to Persian and received considerable acclaim for her command of both languages. Ms. Aryanpour is the compiler of several children's stories and a book of lyrics entitled Songs from Four Continents.

Disrupted from her work toward a Ph.D. degree in Persian literature at Tehran University in 1979 when the Iranian Revolution broke out, her husband, a former Minister of Health and Welfare, was wrongfully imprisoned and sentenced to life. Ms. Aryanpour managed to escape to the United States where her three children attended schools and started a new life.

The author returned to college and received her M.L.S. degree in Library Sciences at Rutgers University in New Jersey, holding the position of librarian at the Center for Urban Policy Research. Ms. Aryanpour and her children have continued to live and work successfully in America.

"As gripping as a first-class thriller, Behind the Tall Walls is a gem of a memoir and could become a highly important contribution to the literature of the Islamic Revolution in Iran. Unlike most works, Behind the Tall Walls is neither a political statement nor a scholarly piece, but it does interpret Iran and its revolution with great sensitivity. It is a sad but fascinating account of one of the Twentieth century’s most dramatic events. An exiled immigrant, Azar Aryanpour masterfully awakens the incredible plot of this tragedy. The clarity of the prose raises the work to the status of belle lettre. Assuredly, it is a good choice for all readers as well as classroom use and it shall be on the reading list of all my courses."
- Hafez Farmayan, The University of Texas at Austin
Professor of History and Director of Iranian Studies

"Azar Aryanpour’s memoirs are engrossing reading, valuable for their insight into the personal tragedy that accompanies a national revolution. By narrating one family’s experiences, she simultaneously relates the turmoil, the suffering, and the upheavals experienced by the Iranian people as their country carved out a new social and political system. Azar Aryanpour has written a fascinating personal history of the problems her family endured in the months before and after the 1979 Iranian Revolution."
- Sana Abed-Kotob, Ph.D.
Middle East Institute, Director of Publications