Chahdortt Djavann

Chahdortt Djavann (Persian: شهدخت جوان; born 1967)^[2] is an Iranian-born French contemporary writer, novelist, and essayist.^[3] Her works often touch on topics such as identity and memory; and she is outspoken against Islam and Iranian religious leaders.^[4][5][6] She regularly appears on French television and radio.^[7]

Chahdortt Djavann
شهدخت جوان
Djavann (2012) in Paris
Born	1967 (age 57–58) Iran
Education	School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences
Occupation(s)	Contemporary writer, novelist, essayist[1]

Biography

Chahdortt Djavann was born in 1967 in Pahlavi Iran; her family was of Azerbaijani descent from an aristocratic line.^[5][8][9] She left Iran in 1991. First, she moved to Turkey, followed by a move to France in 1993.^[10][5] She attended the School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences (French: Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales) in Paris.^[5][11]

Her novel La Muette (Flammarion, 2008) is the confession of a fifteen-year-old girl sentenced to hang in the prisons of the Islamic Republic of Iran.^[12]

Djavann often was on the forefront of political and religious debates, including the veil debates in France, and she has spoken openly on the topic of immigration assimilation.^[13][14] In January 2006, Djavann was a guest on the French television program Culture et Dépendances, where she spoke on "assimilation as liberation".^[15]

She was awarded the Grand Prix de la Laïcité (2003) for secularism from the Comité Laïcité République [fr] association.^[16] In 2004, she was honored with the title of Chevalier (Knight) of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.^[16]

Her work has sparked both praise and criticism.^[17] Djavann was labeled as a experiencing "self-orientalism" by Laetitia Nanquette in the research article French New Orientalist Narratives from the "Natives": Reading More Than Chahdortt Djavann in Paris (2009), published in the academic journal Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East.^[18]

Publications

• Djavann, Chahdortt (2004). Je Viens d'ailleurs [I Come From Elsewhere] (in French). Gallimard Education. ISBN 9782070300358.
• Djavann, Chahdortt (2004). Que pense Allah de l'Europe ? [What does Allah think of Europe?] (in French). Gallimard. ISBN 978-2070772025.
• Djavann, Chahdortt (2004). Abajo El Velo! (in Spanish). El Aleph Editores. ISBN 978-8-476-69670-5.
• Djavann, Chahdortt (2004). Autoportrait de l'autre (in French).^[19]
• Djavann, Chahdortt (2005). Bas les voiles ! (in French). Gallimard Education. ISBN 9782070321056.
• Djavann, Chahdortt (2006). Comment peut-on être Français ? [How can you be French?].^[14] ISBN 2-08-068916-9
• Djavann, Chahdortt (2007). A Mon Corps Défendant, l'Occident [Against My Will, the West] (in French). Flammarion. ISBN 9782081200999.
• Djavann, Chahdortt (2007). L'Alphabet de l'espoir: les écrivains s'engagent. UNESCO.
• Djavann, Chahdortt (June 2007). "Islamismen truer demokratiet" [Islamism threatens democracy]. Udenrigs (in Danish) (2). doi:10.7146/udernigs.v0i2.119529 (inactive 11 July 2025).{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: DOI inactive as of July 2025 (link)
• Djavann, Chahdortt (2007). Pour une littérature-monde (in French). Gallimard. ISBN 978-2070785308.
• Djavann, Chahdortt (2008). La Muette (in French). Flammarion. ISBN 978-2081210530.^[20][12]
• Djavann, Chahdortt (2009). Ne Négociez Pas Avec Le Régime Iranien [Do Not Negotiate With the Iranian Regime] (in French). Flammarion. ISBN 9782081233614.
• Djavann, Chahdortt; Halling, Kirsten (2010). "Entretien avec Chahdortt Djavann". Dalhousie French Studies. 92 (1): 139–144. ISSN 0711-8813. JSTOR 41705542. Retrieved 2022-09-23.
• Djavann, Chahdortt (2010). De zwijgster (in French). Sirene. ISBN 978-9-058-31498-7.
• Djavann, Chahdortt (2011). Je Ne Suis Pas Celle Que Je Suis (in French). Flammarion. ISBN 978-2-081-22754-5.
• Djavann, Chahdortt (2013). La Dernière Séance (in French). Fayard. ISBN 9782213677569.
• Djavann, Chahdortt (2012). Die Stumme. Das Taschenhörbuch (in German). Steinbach Sprechende. ISBN 978-3-869-74114-7.
• Chahdortt, Djavann (2015). Big daddy. Grasset. ISBN 978-2-246-85178-3. Retrieved 2023-04-10.
• Djavann, Chahdortt (2016). Les putes voilées n'iront jamais au paradis !. Grasset. ISBN 978-2246856979.
• Chahdortt, Djavann (2016). Comment Lutter Efficacement Contre L'Ideologie Islamique. Grasset. ISBN 978-2-246-86298-7. Retrieved 2023-04-10.
• Djavann, Chahdortt (2016). Meester. Cargo. p. 272. ISBN 978-9-023-49479-9.
• Djavann, Chahdortt (2018). Iran J'accuse !. Grasset.
• Djavann, Chahdortt (2021). Et ces êtres sans pénis ! [And those beings without penises!] (in French). Grasset. ISBN 9782246813682.

See also

• Négar Djavadi
• Fariba Hachtroudi
• Michel Houellebecq
• Delphine Minoui
• Marjane Satrapi
• Abnousse Shalmani
• Mohamed Sifaoui