Reading Lolita in Tehran

written by Azar Nafisi

My friend and stepsister Terry gave me this book. Back in January we endured a very long day together at St. Joe's hospital as we waited for the ER doctors to figure out what to do with my very ill, very frail stepmother. (Which, believe me, is another story for another blog altogether.) As a diversion, we began chatting about what we'd been reading lately, and Terry found out that I had this book on my must-read list because I'd heard good things about it from Jay's mom. She promptly ran out to Borders and bought it for me.

It's a compelling true story about Azar Nafisi, an Iranian professor of literature, who weathers a turbulent and socially repressive period of political upheaval in Iran. Sadly, she quits her job at a university in Tehran due to the rampant Islamic authoritarianism and the rigid restrictions placed upon women. As a means of promoting and affirming the right to independent thought, she assembles a small group of women who believe in the power of literature, and conducts a makeshift class once a week in her home. The book is a memoir of those difficult years, told through a discussion of the novels they read together.

So the book is really a combination of literary criticism and poignant memoir. Woven throughout is Nafisi's political commentary about the transformation of Iran from a vibrant, progressive nation to one where much of the population is manipulated through repression and intimidation. It's a sad, disturbing glimpse into a society that attributes very little value to women.

Of Note:

• Overall, I felt very uneducated as I read this book, mainly on two levels: (1) I know very little about the political and religious history of Iran, and this book places you smack dab in the middle of the Iranian revolution. (2) I used to think I knew something of great literature, but after reading this book I realize I know next to nothing. Of the many novels that the author weaves into her memoir, I recognized the titles of maybe two in ten. Maybe.


• The one big take-away that I LOVED in this book is the message that literature, even if it portrays immoral people or bad behavior, does not in itself corrupt the reader. The Islamic regime in Iran wanted to prohibit citizens from reading such controversial stories as Pride and Prejudice and Lolita because the assumption was that if you read that stuff, you become just like the main characters (i.e., you read about sin, you become sinful). Interesting that some ultra-conservative Christians would say the same thing! I'm not saying that I necessarily recommend or embrace the particular novels Nafisi mentions, but I do believe that reading literature can only open our eyes and our minds, helping us to contemplate issues of truth and justice in a way that allows us to see for ourselves what is right.


• She makes reference several times to "her magician" -- a man who was a champion of free thought but who had intentionally withdrawn from the educational and social system in Iran. He is her sometimes-friend, sometimes-counselor, sometimes-colleague. I found it weird that she portrayed him as some kind of mysterious, Yoda-like being. He was underdeveloped and too murky of a character for me to understand or connect with.


• I found it interesting that there was not a lot of Persian pride, language, or culture woven into the story. Have you noticed that some stories that take place in non-English-speaking locales are filled with the language and imagery of the protagonists' ethnicity? Not this one. In fact, I would even say that the author goes to some length to show that she and her proteges think and act very much like the typical Western citizen, except that they live under a restrictive totalitarian regime. There are very few references to Persian foods (she does mention eating Western goodies, though, such as sandwiches and ice cream) and very few instances where she uses Persian epithets or Persian words. Rather than drawing attention to the uniqueness of Iranian culture, it feels to me like she instead draws attention to the fact that Iranian people, if left unrepressed, would be essentially the same as American people. I'm not saying this is a bad or incorrect view; just notable different than the style of many other foreign authors.


• The story meanders; there's no nice way of saying it. There were several points where she lost me with her long and complicated dissections of literature such as The Great Gatsby, Lolita, and Jane Austen novels. I get the fact that there are parallels to be drawn between some of those books and the plight of life in Iran... but at times the literary criticism started to annoy me. I would've been happier if she had focused more on the lives and personalities of her students and herself.