Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books

by Azar Nafisi

I observe that they have no clear image of themselves; they can only see and shape themselves through other people’s eyes—ironically, the very people they despise. I have underlined love yourself, self-confidence.

This was a remarkable, brilliantly written book. Looking at Iran from the outside I was outraged and felt great empathy for the women. Reading this book took me inside a world I did not know intimately. It is beyond heartbreaking what the ruling faction have put the citizen through. How the author endured and brought truth and imagination to her students during such an ordeal is profound. I now want to read all the books she talks about.