Iranian women have taken up memoir writing in response to the tumultuous recent history of their country and their own difficult experiences. My thesis explores twelve memoirs of women’s lives in Iran and abroad from the time of the Shah through the Islamic Revolution to the last couple of decades of reform and reaction under the Islamic Republic. The similarities and variations in the experiences of the women in these cohorts reveal the value of memoirs as historical evidence. These memoirs illuminate how changes in history have shaped changes in their authors’ consciousness, sense of self, identity, and sense of belonging as an individual person, as a woman, and as an Iranian.