In Case of Emergency
- In Case of Emergency presents a view of Iran that is essentially censored by the US media: it's contemporary, queer, foul-mouthed, and unapologetic. In terms of the translation method, it is a bold translation that takes a lot of risks while sticking close to the source text. Translating curse words and slang is often considered a losing game, but this translation is all-in. And now, more than ever, it's time for Iran and the Islamic world to be regarded as fully human—that is, as funny, dark, and fucked-up as Americans.
- In Case of Emergency (originally in Persian: Negaran nabash, published in 2008) has been widely celebrated in Iran, winning the Golshiri prize—the equivalent of a Pulitzer—among other accolades. Notably, and perhaps surprisingly for those unfamiliar with the capricious nature of the Iranian Ministry of Culture, In Case of Emergency is not a work of underground literature. Mohebali managed to get this text through the censors, despite the fact that arguably it is as critical of the strictures imposed by the Iranian state, as it is of global capitalist society and the gender binary.
- Includes a translator's note
Mahsa Mohebali is an Iranian fiction writer. She is the author of several novels, as well as short story collections. Her short stories have appeared in English in the Guardian as well as the anthologies Tehran Noir (Akashic Books, 2014, trans. Salar Abdoh) and Alive and Kicking: Short Stories by Contemporary Iranian Women Writers (Aftab Publication, 2017, trans. Amir Marashi). In 2013 Mohebali was a resident with the International Writing Program at the University of Iowa. She lives and works in Tehran.
Mariam Rahmani is a writer and translator. Her fiction has appeared in Gulf Coast; her translations in n+1, Columbia Journal, and After Cinema: Fictions from a Collective Memory; and her nonfiction in Granta, BOMB magazine, the Los Angeles Review of Books, and the Rumpus. She holds a PhD in Comparative Literature and is the recipient of a PEN/Heim Translation Fund Grant as well as a US Fulbright Research Award. She is currently working on a debut novel.
