Memoir Metacognition

Lipstick Jihad
For my independent memoir assignment, I chose to make a new book cover for Lipstick Jihad by Azadeh Moaveni. Almost every aspect of the cover was purposely placed on the cover because it has something to do with the memoir.
To begin, I made the cover red because it is the color most often associated with lipstick, which refers to the title. On the red cover, I hand wrote Arabic letters in yellow-gold ink. I wanted to place Arabic letters in the background since most of the story takes place in Iran and writing is such a huge part to Moaveni’s life since she is a journalist. The letters were purposely gold so that they would reflect how rich and intricate the Iranian culture is. The image I included on the cover is of a woman wearing her hijab (head scarf) as demanded by law. The irony, however is that even though the woman is following the rules by covering her head and arms, she is clearly breaking the rules by showing off her legs and red pumps. This alludes to an important theme throughout the story. Moaveni often writes about how so many strict rules lead the Iranian people to break them more. The Iranian people that Moaveni met in Tehran were all so thirsty for sexual contact because it was so forbidden. I thought that the image of the provocative woman would be a good example of the yearning Iranian women have to be free from all the social restrictions that are put on them.
On the back of the cover I placed a photograph of Moaveni since it is her memoir. I also included the line that is on the front of the book because it is probably the best way to describe what Moaveni went through; being Iranian in American and American in Iran. At the bottom I included a bar code to make the cover look realistic as well as the publisher’s information. In my description of the memoir, I made sure to include the word “struggle” In my last sentence since the word ‘jihad’ means struggle. “Lipstick struggle” refers to the daily problems that Iranian people (women specifically) face everyday. I also thought it was important to mention Moaveni’s vivid, mature, and analytical style since it is what makes the memoir so good. Moaveni has the ability to sound mature for such a young age (24) and yet her style is refreshing and easy to read. Overall I looked to the themes of the memoir in order to make the decisions about what to put on my cover.