“Silenced Whispers” with Afarin Bellisario (Camden Conference Community Event)

The Camden Public Library, as a part of the Camden Conference Community Events Series, welcomes author Afarin Bellisario for a discussion on Iran’s past and present, through the lens of her novel Silenced Whispers.

This event will take place on Thursday, October 23 at 6:30 PM in person at the Camden Public Library, in anticipation of the 39th Annual Camden Conference, “Today’s Middle East: Power, Politics, & Players.” Refreshments will be provided.

Silenced Whispers transports readers to the enchanting world of Iran at the turn of the 20th century as the country transforms into a modern nation. It celebrates the courage of a young woman to resist oppression and colonial aggression, and provides insight into how that time seeded conflicts in modern Iran and the Middle East. The book is the winner of Independent Publishers of New England’s silver medal for genre fiction.

---

About Afarin Bellisario

Afarin Bellisario has led a distinguished career in technology and business, with leadership roles at major firms and MIT, and continues to advise startups and teach internationally on innovation and commercialization.

As a writer, she describes herself as “a bridge between East and West, past and future.” Drawing on her experiences living through the Iranian Revolution and her career in American innovation, she writes about the tensions and transformations that occur when tradition meets modernity.

“I grew up in a family with its feet in the past and its head in the future. My grandmothers were taught rudimentary reading and writing at home, but my father and uncles were university graduates and part of Iran’s emerging technocratic elite. I’ve come a very long way even from that: whereas one of my great grandfathers had 25 wives and concubines, I have a PhD from MIT.

Today, with the benefit of hindsight, I trace the roots of the Iranian conflict to the early twentieth century, when Iran was introduced to modern technologies such as the telephone and electricity, along with Western ideas of individuality. In a traditional society, you must conform to family rules in order to be protected. In a modern society, you are protected by laws and the state. You can survive outside your tribe. But you lose the intangibles: love and comfort, and the thread that connects you to the past.” – Afarin Bellisario

---

This event is presented in anticipation of the 39th Annual Camden Conference, “Today’s Middle East: Power, Politics, & Players” taking place live from the Camden Opera House from February 20 – 22, 2026.