"As a nine-year-old Tehrani schoolgirl during the Iranian Revolution, Nazila Fathi watched her country change before her eyes. The revolutionaries--most of them poor, uneducated, and radicalized--seized jobs, housing, and positions of power, transforming Iranian society practically overnight. But this socioeconomic revolution had an unintended effect. As Fathi shows, the forces unleashed in 1979 inadvertently created a robust Iranian middle class, one that today hungers for more personal freedoms and a renewed relationship with the outside world. And unless an international confrontation allows Iranian leaders to justify an internal crackdown, this internal pressure for reform will soon set the country on a more stable track. In The Lonely War, Fathi describes Iran's awakening alongside her own, revealing how moderates are retaking the country--and how foreign powers can aid their progress"-- Provided by publisher.

Part One. The Formative Years, 1979-1989 -- The Revolution -- Nessa -- The Time of Horror -- "World Powers Did It!" -- The Cleansing -- The War -- Our Bodies, Our Battlefields -- Masoud -- The War Ends -- Part Two. Awakening. 1989-1999 -- After Khomeini -- Meeting a Hawk -- The Intelligence Ministry -- The War Revisited -- The Walls Come Crashing Down -- Nessa Mourns -- A Force of Change -- Reform -- The Regime Strikes Back -- Part Three. The Decade of Confrontation, 1999-2009 -- The Reformists Speak Out -- No Fear of Authority -- The "Good" Children of the Revolution -- The "Bad" Children of the Revolution -- Nasrin -- The Rising Tide -- End of an Era -- Exile.