Perhaps there is no place in the world where the stakes of partying and having sex are as high as in the Islamic Republic of Iran. Drinking and dancing can lead to arrest by the morality police, accompanied by up to 70 lashes. Consequences for sex outside of marriage can be even more severeup to 84 lashes, and public execution is still a legal punishment. But even under the threat of such harsh possible punishment, a sexual revolution is taking place. Iranian youth continually risk personal safety to meet friends, date, and, ultimately, to have sex. These youth have become part of a self-proclaimed revolution, where sexuality represents freedom and changes in sexual behavior are considered political activism. In the absence of any option for overt political dissent, young people are attacking the Iranian regimea regime that finds much of its power through dictating personal behavior and relationshipsby undermining the government's moral fabric. With unprecedented access inside Iran over a period of seven years, Pardis Mahdavi gives us an unparalleled look at daily life.

Through her, Iranian youth are given a voice as she tells the stories of their quest for both sexual freedom and political reform. A firsthand witness to this insatiable hunger for change, she offers an intimate look at young Iranians' hopes and desires for a better future. But it is not a future without risk. As Mahdavi shows, this sexual revolution is also leading to increased levels of abortion, HIV/AIDS, sexually transmitted diseases, and ongoing emotional troubles and mental illnesses, with worrying implications for the Iranian youth. Passionate Uprisingsis framed by the author's own struggle to find her identity as an Iranian-American and learn more about the culture of her own family. As her fascinating and personal journey chronicled in this book reveals, the ongoing sexual revolution provides not only an invaluable insight into the real lives of much of Iran's population, but could even destabilize the current regime and change the course of Iranian politics.