Reading Lolita in Tehran, Azar Nafisi
Reading Lolita in Tehran, A Memoir in Books
Azar Nafisi
Random House Trade Paperback Edition, 2004
ISBN 0-8129-7106-X
Amazon Link
This book inspired me to create a place to write about books, so I must start with it. Part autobiography, part fiction, part literary criticism, part political commentary, Nafisi has truly created must read. Her Memoir in Books, as she calls it, gives us a compelling view of life in Iran, for women, families, students, and literature, from the days of the Shah on through to the aftermath of the war with Iraq.
After leaving one university job for refusal to wear the veil in the classroom, and growing disenchanted with another when she decides to compromise and go back to teaching, Nafisi breaks her ties with public teaching and begins a private class in her own home.
There a group of young women gathers once a week to discuss Western novels and to learn a little about themselves. Nafisi writes: I could not get over the shock of seeing them shed their mandatory veils and robes and burst into color. When my students came into that room, they took off more than their scarves and robes. Gradually, each one gained an outline and a shape, becoming her own inimitable self.
Indeed, I could not get over the shock of the pink lipstick, the gold earrings, the red nail polish, and the mingled desires and frustrations emerging from beneath the black robes and scarves each time Nafisi's girls arrived for the next lesson.
One of the main themes running throughout the book deals with the struggle for self-identity beneath the veil. The young women respond especially well to Nabokov's Lolita because they understand only too well what it is to be a young girl whose life has been confiscated by another. Nafisi repeatedly asks them to write about how they see themselves, and too often the answer is "I'm not ready for that yet." In a land where a stray piece of hair flying out of a veil can lead to arrest, beatings by morality police, rape, or execution, women are left to the task of erasing all public identity with the donning of robes, gloves and veils. Yet underneath those veils there is pink lipstick, however illegal. There is fear and hope and the knowledge that these women do not have the same freedoms their mothers had. There are sharp minds that understand well the bravery in characters like Henry James' shy Catherine Sloper. They love and understand books, and through the books, they come to reveal a little more and a little more of themselves to themselves. They come to a point where they are ready to discuss their quite painful experiences with and relationships to the regime that is their captor.
There are many more things to say about Reading Lolita in Tehran, but for now I will leave it with this is an inspiring, well-written book. Anyone who loves literature should read it. Anyone who loves teaching should read it. Anyone who wants to know what lives beneath the veil in a land called Iran should read it.
Azar Nafisi
Random House Trade Paperback Edition, 2004
ISBN 0-8129-7106-X
Amazon Link
This book inspired me to create a place to write about books, so I must start with it. Part autobiography, part fiction, part literary criticism, part political commentary, Nafisi has truly created must read. Her Memoir in Books, as she calls it, gives us a compelling view of life in Iran, for women, families, students, and literature, from the days of the Shah on through to the aftermath of the war with Iraq.
After leaving one university job for refusal to wear the veil in the classroom, and growing disenchanted with another when she decides to compromise and go back to teaching, Nafisi breaks her ties with public teaching and begins a private class in her own home.
There a group of young women gathers once a week to discuss Western novels and to learn a little about themselves. Nafisi writes: I could not get over the shock of seeing them shed their mandatory veils and robes and burst into color. When my students came into that room, they took off more than their scarves and robes. Gradually, each one gained an outline and a shape, becoming her own inimitable self.
Indeed, I could not get over the shock of the pink lipstick, the gold earrings, the red nail polish, and the mingled desires and frustrations emerging from beneath the black robes and scarves each time Nafisi's girls arrived for the next lesson.
One of the main themes running throughout the book deals with the struggle for self-identity beneath the veil. The young women respond especially well to Nabokov's Lolita because they understand only too well what it is to be a young girl whose life has been confiscated by another. Nafisi repeatedly asks them to write about how they see themselves, and too often the answer is "I'm not ready for that yet." In a land where a stray piece of hair flying out of a veil can lead to arrest, beatings by morality police, rape, or execution, women are left to the task of erasing all public identity with the donning of robes, gloves and veils. Yet underneath those veils there is pink lipstick, however illegal. There is fear and hope and the knowledge that these women do not have the same freedoms their mothers had. There are sharp minds that understand well the bravery in characters like Henry James' shy Catherine Sloper. They love and understand books, and through the books, they come to reveal a little more and a little more of themselves to themselves. They come to a point where they are ready to discuss their quite painful experiences with and relationships to the regime that is their captor.
There are many more things to say about Reading Lolita in Tehran, but for now I will leave it with this is an inspiring, well-written book. Anyone who loves literature should read it. Anyone who loves teaching should read it. Anyone who wants to know what lives beneath the veil in a land called Iran should read it.
posted by Sharon Gerald at 5:34 AM
1 Comments:
You've convinced me! I'll read this book soon.
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