'Journey from the Land of No'

The year 1979 was a pivotal one in the history of Iran and that country's relationship with the United States. The shah had abdicated and was replaced by the Ayatollah Khomeini.

Angry demonstrators took control of the U.S. embassy and the whole world watched as 52 Americans were taken hostage.

But as these events played out on the world stage, they also were part of the daily life of a young Jewish girl growing up in Tehran.

"People are shocked to find out I'm a Jew, and I lived in Iran until a few years ago," Roya Hakakian tells The Early Show co-anchor Harry Smith. "Isn't it ironic that the Iranian Jewish community, its history in Iran, precedes that of the Muslims in Iran, and hardly anyone knows about it."

Hakakian was a witness to the revolution and writes about it in her new book, "Journey from the Land of No: A Girlhood Caught in Revolutionary Iran." Click here to read an excerpt.

In the book, she describes her wonderful family life and how it turned around after the revolution.

She says, "I think of the Iranian revolution, even until today with all the criticisms we are making about it, it's the greatest event I have in my own personal life, something I would not switch with anything else in the world. It was because it took place for all the right reasons. The fact that it went wrong is a tragedy. But it took place because people demanded more civil liberties, more democracy, openness -- all the kinds of things that all the Middle East is really vying for these days."

The burst of emotion that is going on in Lebanon now is very similar to the feelings Iranians felt at the time, Hakakian says.

"I'm willing to argue that it all began in Iran," she explains. "Iran is really where the center of this earthquake was in '78, and the reverberations are still being felt, since '78."

Back in the '70s, her family lived harmoniously in a very diverse society. She says, "We lived on an alley that I called, The Alley of the Distinguished, in the book. We had Armenian Christian neighbors, and Zoroastrians. And all kinds of people, along with my kind, Jewish, and we had a fabulous time."

But it all changed for the worst. The revolution did not bring about the positive changes her family thought it would bring.

She says, "Transformation from those moments of ecstasy and euphoria, and the complete conviction that things were going to be a lot better than they had been, to a dark history we experienced two or three years later are very important, not just for us as Iranians, but for the rest of the world. Because Iran in '78 and '79 was one of the most modern countries in the Middle East. And it became a fundamentalist nation. How? Why? Why was it that religion become so powerful? In a country that had that modern experience in a matter of two or three years. I think those lessons are important for all of us."

She notes that today Iran is a hopeful place, "not because of what the headlines say, but because I think the general public recognizes the fact that religion and the affairs of the state need to be separated. And I think that is a huge leap forward."

So who is to end the religious oppression?

"That's the million dollar question," she says. "But the important thing is that as far as a cultural and sociological perspective is concerned, people have come to the conclusion that we don't want theocracy any more; we have to separate the two institutions."

The book has been getting rave reviews. It was named "best non-fiction of the year" by Elle magazine.