Born | Tehran, Iran, to an Iranian father from Isfahan and a British mother |
Today | Author, speaker, and Farsi and English translator based in the Chicago area |
Book | From Miniskirt to Hijab: A Girl in Revolutionary Iran (Potomac Books, 2019) |
Expertise | The 1979 revolution, women and religious minorities in Iran, Iranian Jewish history |
Speaks to | Universities, high schools, synagogues, book groups, and community audiences |
Website | |
Jacqueline Saper was born and raised in a Jewish family in Tehran in the 1960s and 1970s, the daughter of an Iranian father from Isfahan and a British mother. She was eighteen when the 1979 revolution transformed Iran into an Islamic Republic. That year she married and moved to Shiraz, where she raised her young family while the new government reshaped daily life, and she sheltered in a basement during bombings in the Iran Iraq War. In 1987, after seeing her six year old daughter taught radical politics at school, she left Iran for the United States with her husband and two children.
In the United States, Saper earned a B.S. in Business, summa cum laude, from Northeastern Illinois University and became a Certified Public Accountant. She taught at Oakton Community College and spent much of her career in synagogue management and Jewish education. She is a graduate of the Hadassah Leadership Academy and the Florence Melton School. She also works as a Farsi and English translator for the National Immigrant Justice Center, and her opinion pieces have appeared in The Seattle Times, The Forward, The Times of Israel, and other outlets.
Her memoir, From Miniskirt to Hijab: A Girl in Revolutionary Iran (Potomac Books, 2019), won the Chicago Writers Association 2020 Book of the Year Award for traditional nonfiction and has been used in courses at Marymount University and Indiana University Bloomington. A TEDx speaker, she has presented at Harvard, the University of Chicago, Loyola University Chicago, Indiana University Bloomington, Northeastern Illinois University, Brandeis, and Tel Aviv University. Using family photographs, her talks are fact based and non-partisan, helping audiences understand life in Iran before and after the revolution and the experience of women and religious minorities.
People need to know what happened in Iran to understand what's happening in the world today.
Jacqueline Saper, interview with Feathered Quill
Speaking Topics
What Jacqueline talks about
1. From Miniskirt to Hijab
A firsthand account, illustrated with family photographs, of growing up in Tehran as the 1979 revolution changed Iranian society.
2. The Jews of Iran
The history and present situation of Iran's Jewish community and other religious minorities.
3. Women in Iran
How the revolution changed women's lives, and women's activism in Iran today.
4. Iran 101
An accessible introduction to modern Iranian history, culture, and current events.
5. Israel and Iran
How the two countries went from friendly relations to rivalry, explained for general audiences.
Select Talks
Selected talks and appearances
2024 | Courage Amid Chaos with Jacqueline Saper, Denver Jewish community evening program listed by JEWISHcolorado (July 30) |
2021 | TEDxNEIU, Northeastern Illinois University, Chicago: From Miniskirt to Hijab to Cowboy Boots: Iran's History as Told Through Fashion (April 20) |
2021 | Tel Aviv University, Alliance Center for Iranian Studies, with the Hadassah-Brandeis Institute: Women's History Month conversation on Iranian Jewish girlhood memoirs (online) |
2021 | Deerfield Public Library, Illinois: From Miniskirt to Hijab author program and book discussion (online, July 13) |
2020 | The Media Line: live online conversation on Jewish life in Iran and her memoir (June 23) |
2020 | Harvard Alumni for Global Women's Empowerment: author reading and interview (online) |
By 2021 | Talks at Harvard, Indiana University Bloomington, the University of Chicago, Loyola University Chicago, Northeastern Illinois University, and Brandeis |
Ongoing | JIMENA Speakers Bureau: signature talk From Miniskirt to Hijab |
These are a selection of Jacqueline’s talks. Jacqueline has given many more, at universities, public libraries, synagogues, Jewish community centers, and TEDx audiences across the United States and online.
Publications and Media
Read, watch, and listen
Book
From Miniskirt to Hijab: A Girl in Revolutionary Iran
Memoir of growing up Jewish in Tehran and living through the revolution and the Iran Iraq War, published by Potomac Books, an imprint of the University of Nebraska Press, in 2019. Chicago Writers Association Book of the Year announcement
Article
Passover, Iran, and the Fragility of Freedom
Opinion essay on The Times of Israel blogs, April 2026. Read her Times of Israel essays
Profile
Author Interview: Jacqueline Saper
Interview with Feathered Quill about her memoir, its research, and her speaking work, 2021. Read the interview
Video
From Miniskirt to Hijab, A Girl in Revolutionary Iran
Online program with Tel Aviv University's Alliance Center for Iranian Studies and the Hadassah-Brandeis Institute, March 2021. Event page
Affiliations
Organizations
- National Immigrant Justice Center (translator)
- Hadassah Leadership Academy (graduate)
- Florence Melton School (graduate)
- JIMENA Speakers Bureau
Book Jacqueline
Bring this speaker to your audience
To invite Jacqueline Saper to your school, university, congregation, or organization, use the Book Speaker button above or email info@jimena.org.