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An inspired blend of memoir and literary criticism, Reading Lolita in Tehran is a moving testament to the power of art and its ability to change and improve people's lives. In 1995, after resigning from her job as a professor at a university in Tehran due to repressive policies, Azar Nafisi invited seven of her best female students to attend a weekly study of great Western literature in her home. Since the books they read were officially banned by the government, the women were forced to meet in secret, often sharing photocopied pages of the illegal novels. For two years they met to talk, share, and "shed their mandatory veils and robes and burst into color." Though most of the women were shy and intimidated at first, they soon became emboldened by the forum and used the meetings as a springboard for debating the social, cultural, and political realities of living under strict Islamic rule. They discussed their harassment at the hands of "morality guards," the daily indignities of living under the Ayatollah Khomeini's regime, the effects of the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s, love, marriage, and life in general, giving readers a rare inside look at revolutionary Iran. The books were always the primary focus, however, and they became "essential to our lives: they were not a luxury but a necessity," she writes. Threaded into the memoir are trenchant discussions of the work of Vladimir Nabokov, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Jane Austen, and other authors who provided the women with examples of those who successfully asserted their autonomy despite great odds. The great works encouraged them to strike out against authoritarianism and repression in their own ways, both large and small: "There, in that living room, we rediscovered that we were also living, breathing human beings; and no matter how repressive the state became, no matter how intimidated and frightened we were, like Lolita we tried to escape and to create our own little pockets of freedom," she writes. In short, the art helped them to survive. --Shawn Carkonen--This text refers to the
Hardcover edition.
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Write an online review and share your thoughts with other customers. 212 of 230 people found the following review helpful:  Sex with a man you loathe. . ., July 21, 2003
The author, now living in the US, tells of almost two decades in Iran, as a teacher of English and American literature. She tells of the great hopes for reform after the fall of the Shah and the return from exile of the Ayatollah Khomeini, and with her we watch in horror as the revolution takes Iran by force instead into its medieval past. There are arrests, murders, and executions and those who can, flee to the West. The transformation of Iran is charted by the repressive attempts to make women invisible, by covering them in public from head to toe. It becomes a world in which wearing fingernail polish, even under gloves, is a punishable offense. And punishment, as we learn, is typically brutal. The author escapes from this violence into the imaginative world of Western novels (from Nabokov to Dashiell Hammet) where she finds democratic ideals expressed in fiction's ability to help us empathize with other people. For her, it is the heart that has gone out of the gun-wielding moral police that want to sweep away all but complete submission to their fundamentalist form of Islam. And while she is a teacher, she must deal with classes filled with students who have been polarized by the political forces around them. All, curiously, are in single agreement that the West is corrupt and absolutely evil. Meanwhile, the novels of Western writers engage them, sometimes furiously. A wonderful sequence in the book concerns a mock trial in the classroom in which "The Great Gatsby" is brought up on charges of immorality. "Lolita," we discover, becomes a story of a girl who finally escapes from the clutches of a man who wants to erase who she is and turn her into a figment of his imagination. It's not an allegory of Iran, Nafisi insists, but it's hard not to see the parallels. The contamination of personal relationships between men and women and its impact on love and marriage inform their readings of James and Austen. Meanwhile, even as her classes meet to argue the merits of these authors, their books are disappearing as one bookstore after another is closed down. Added to all this is an account of living through eight years of war with Iraq, while missiles fall on Tehran and the numbers of casualties on the front lines mount. After leaving teaching, the author assembles a hand-picked group of former students, all female, to meet weekly at her home and talk more about books. Here the individual personalities and histories of each come to the fore, and we get a glimpse (as in fiction) into personal worlds experienced intensely under circumstances that have nearly robbed them of their identities. It's easy to go on and on about this book. There is so much packed into it. Needless to say, I recommend it highly, especially to anyone who loves books or has taught literature. Obviously, it also informs many gender issues. For male readers, such as myself, it is like an extended version of Virginia Woolf's illuminating "A Room of One's Own." The author and her young students show how the lives of both men and women are impoverished in a world where one sex attempts to assume control over the other. For me, the book is best summed up in the author's words near the end: "Living in the Islamic Republic is like having sex with a man you loathe." The books is not a polemic, and as the author would be first to admit, there are many other voices to be heard on the subject of Iran, its government, and its role in the world. For this reader, her book opens a door into a complex subject that invites one to read more and know more. 127 of 164 people found the following review helpful: A must read...., May 23, 2003
Before I read Ms. Nafisi's book, I had a very negative view of Nabokov's `Lolita' which has been translated into at least two films, one starring James Mason and the other more recent version starring Jeffrey Irons. The latter film version was not distributed to theaters in the US owing to an outcry from the US public about the content which included incest. I have to admit I was against showing of the Irons film in the US, but since I know nothing about the interpretation in the Irons film my thinking could biased. Whatever the case for Irons' film, Ms. Nafisi has exonerated Nabokov as far as I am concerned. Apparently, he was on Lola's side and trying to show the reader how really awful Humbert the stepfather was. Humbert blamed Lola (whom he called Lolita) for her own rape. I may finally read 'Lolita' or I may not, but I have a different perspective. Ms. Nafisi has written a book about Nabokov's novels that I plan to read since I am now convinced I not have given this author a fair hearing. Ms Nafisi's memoir works on several levels. On one level, her book is literary criticism. Through her exchange with her students, she reviews selected works by several classic authors including: Nabokov, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Henry James, and Jane Austen. On a second level she narrates the tale of a group of female students who continued their studies in English literary criticism at Ms. Nafisi's apartment after she resigned from her teaching position. (She resigned because the intrusion of the `Revolution' into her affairs and the affairs of the institutions where she worked.) On a third level, Ms Nafisi is reveals how a civilized nation slipped into madness as the result of a `religious' movement. On the highest level, this book challenges the reader to ask, "What is morality?" I found myself laughing and crying as I read Ms. Nafisi's beautifully written book. She has an important story to tell, and I hope every person (especially women) in America will read this very entertaining and informative work. I sent a copy to my sister who is a high school librarian with the suggestion she encourage seniors to read the book. In my opinion it ranks with Victor Frankel's, `Man's Search for Meaning.' You can think of it as `woman's search for meaning'. Nafisi implies there is no difference between Nazis Frankel faced and the "religious" zealots she faced. Customer Reviews
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 Write an online review and share your thoughts with other customers. Fiction as a free space in your mind in an unfree society, April 11, 2005
This class enabled these young women to create a small space, a tiny world of imagination and personal choices in a faith-based society where, as one woman who was sometimes beaten by her husband put it, suicide was the only independent action she could take without fearing his punishment. I usually have about three books going at once, reading a chapter or two in one and then moving on to another in a cycle. This book so held my interest that the other books were neglected. This is an intimate picture of just what it means to be a woman in a theocracy. Even the students who began with a strong religious faith found that the daily degradation and injustice towards women and girls in the name of morality forced them to question their beliefs. The secular women felt the humiliation of being forced to submit to the role the religious authorities, in their god-given wisdom, thought best for them. Ms Nafisi's discussions of her authors were among the more interesting I have ever heard. If you ever have the opportunity to take one of her classes, I recommend taking it. Also, I need to buy another bookcase for books which, the way things are going in the U.S. , might end up being banned on the say-so of some preacher. The way things are going, who knows? Was this review helpful to you?   2 of 2 people found the following review helpful: A compelling and sympathetic book..., April 10, 2005
The book is unique in that it is a memoir and a commentary on literary works. It is about the writer's life in Tehran, during the eighties and the nineties and interspersed in her memoir are her comments on western literature and authors such as Nabokov, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Henry James and Jane Austen. I believe the writer was trying to let the reader see a link between fiction and reality. The first few pages led me to believe that the book was going to be about the members of the secret book discussion group which met at the writer's house for two years. The theme of the writer's English literature classes was the relation between fiction and reality. I was fascinated by the writer's experiences: teaching western literature during a time when anything western was labeled indecent and decadent, surviving the eight year war between Iraq and Iran and deciding to migrate to United States. The book opened my eyes about the strength and courage of Middle Eastern women and in particular, Iranian women. Nafisi painted a picture of religion being used as an instrument of power that intruded in the personal lives of Iranians after the departure of the Shah. There was an example of some young ladies being reprimanded for eating apples too seductively. She painted a clear picture of chaos in education at the university level where leftists and Islamists frequently clashed on campus reflecting the drama and chaos in the Iranian society where the leftists, Islamists and Monarchists battled each other. Ultimately, this is a well-written and wonderful book. Not only is it about survival of the human spirit, it's a book that celebrate many passions, reading among them. Pick up a copy! Another very different, but highly enjoyable recent Amazon purchase I enjoyed was The Losers Club: Complete Restored Edition by Richard Perez. Was this review helpful to you? 1 of 5 people found the following review helpful:  Be Aware, Fiction Readers, this is NOT a Novel!, April 8, 2005
This writer sounds like what she is, a teacher, and that is how it is written. The lines and quotes from literature in relation to the plight of the women do parralel, and true, the book makes some profound statements, and instills sympathy for the repressed women, but this is something we already know about, what with our own soldiers over there fighting to help them live better lives. I did not find this an enjoyable read and had trouble picking it up each time I had to, reading this for my Readers Group discussion. Was this review helpful to you? 5 of 8 people found the following review helpful: A sensasional story, March 31, 2005
I like the way the author did the narration. The voice is strong and clear. Poetic and fast flowing, one gets the story easily and has no difficulty relating to the story. I recommend this book to all. Also recommended: TRIPLE AGENT, DOUBLE CROSS, DISCIPLES OF FORTUNE, THE UNION MOUJIK, THE USURPER AND OTHER STORIES Was this review helpful to you?
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