false 7603 32 The memoir of Azar Nafisi a professor at the University of Tehran and how she and some of her students defied the Iranian radical regime's repression of women there and how literature can lift the soul. An inspired blend of memoir and literary criticism, <I>Reading Lolita in Tehran</I> 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. <I>--Shawn Carkonen</I> 903067 book 30 12 2003 Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books total:18593|5:3030|4:6140|3:5823|2:2535|1:1065| 18593 63314 27906 2782 1 29 false false Mon Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2007 Mon Jun 04 14:14:00 -0700 2007 Fri Jun 19 02:47:44 -0700 2009 more...]]> 3 9 false false Sat Mar 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Wed Apr 23 14:21:37 -0700 2008 Wed Apr 23 14:41:43 -0700 2008 more...]]> 0 9 false false Wed Nov 28 12:58:25 -0800 2007 Wed Aug 01 07:51:15 -0700 2007 Fri Aug 17 13:25:48 -0700 2007 more...]]> 3 10 false false Tue Jun 12 10:58:42 -0700 2007 Wed Jun 20 10:48:25 -0700 2007 more...]]> 5 7 false false Sun Mar 18 17:25:19 -0700 2007 Sat Oct 27 17:18:20 -0700 2007 more...]]> 2 8 true false Mon Oct 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Sun Oct 14 05:47:44 -0700 2007 Fri Oct 19 00:09:31 -0700 2007
Unfortunately t...more...]]> 4 5 false false Thu Jul 12 10:38:48 -0700 2007 Sat Aug 25 01:32:05 -0700 2007
Indeed Iran has always inter...more...]]> 4 5 false false Sun Oct 28 06:51:03 -0700 2007 Tue Nov 11 18:38:20 -0800 2008 more...]]> 4 5 false false Fri Jun 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Sat Jun 09 05:53:45 -0700 2007 Sat Jun 16 13:52:22 -0700 2007 more...]]> 2 4 true false Tue May 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Sat May 19 02:36:48 -0700 2007 Tue May 29 23:57:07 -0700 2007 more...]]> 3 3 false false Mon Dec 15 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Thu Nov 20 10:20:10 -0800 2008 Thu Dec 18 23:24:59 -0800 2008 more...]]> 4 4 false false Sat Nov 29 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Fri Nov 14 18:16:31 -0800 2008 Sun Nov 30 12:23:47 -0800 2008 more...]]> 2 3 false false Tue May 06 18:50:48 -0700 2008 Wed Jun 25 20:53:52 -0700 2008 Reading Lolita in Tehran is a window into the lives of a few Iranian women living within the confines of the Islamic Regime, namely, Nafisi and her female students. While the memoir seeks to characterize life under the Islamic Regime through the lens of four classics of western...more...]]> 3 3 false false Fri Jul 01 00:00:00 -0700 2005 Thu May 10 08:10:56 -0700 2007 Thu May 10 08:10:56 -0700 2007
Imagine...Having to hide a satellite dish for fear of being arrested and thrown in prison,having to hide your face with a veil,your body with a robe,your head with a scarf,and God help you if a couple of loose str...more...]]> 5 2 false false Fri Jan 02 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Tue Aug 19 22:42:33 -0700 2008 Sat Jan 03 22:13:02 -0800 2009 more...]]> 4 2 false false Wed Nov 22 00:00:00 -0800 2006 Thu Jul 17 07:40:09 -0700 2008 Thu Jul 17 07:40:25 -0700 2008 more...]]> 4 2 false false Fri Apr 18 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Tue Apr 08 07:17:30 -0700 2008 Fri Apr 18 07:03:36 -0700 2008 more...]]> 3 5 false false Thu Aug 27 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Tue Feb 12 14:20:23 -0800 2008 Fri Aug 28 08:13:28 -0700 2009 more...]]> 2 2 true false Tue Feb 19 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Fri Feb 01 15:01:27 -0800 2008 Tue Feb 19 09:21:45 -0800 2008 more...]]> 4 2 false false Fri Sep 14 17:50:48 -0700 2007 Mon Feb 18 13:45:48 -0800 2008
p. 30 - "She was talking about the teacher who taught Islamic morality and translation. A Pillsbury Dough Boy personality, she said. Three months after his wife's death, he had married her younger sister, because a man - and here Yassi low...more...]]>