I have heard this is a wonderful book and am interested in reading this with my students. What age would this be appropriate for?

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10 years ago
5 answers

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blereader I'd say this is ideal for students who have read at least some of the various works (Lolita, The Great Gatsby, etc.) and who don't mind reading a 400+ page book. Many of the complaints about Reading Lolita in Tehran are about how "boring" the literary analyses are, so students who enjoy analyzing classics and who can reflect from memory about their experiences with Lolita etc. would probably enjoy Nafisi's memoir better. I myself didn't read many of these Western works until my college years, so I suppose I'm biased towards thinking that this book is best for university students. Also, much of the accounts take place at a university, so it might ring well with those who are going through or who have gone through a university education.

For younger students, you might consider Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis. It's more or less the same place and time period. Satrapi's work is just as serious as Nafisi's, but it might keep the interest of young students better, as it's less "pontificating," it's in graphic novel form, and it follows the life of a young girl growing up.

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Hannah Breckenridge I think it might be a good book to incorporate into a class which studies works that Nafisi addresses- but I do not necessarily buy that you need to have read the books in order to enjoy the book. A lot of young students throughout jr and sr high today have a lot of difficulty connecting to classic works but really want to- so seeing Nafisi relate works like Lolita to real life circumstance in my eyes could heavily ignite a passion for literary analysis. That said, I was given the memoir for my 18th birthday and deeply enjoyed it- I think it would be appropriate for anyone 14+ and a few years older could probably glean more from it! :-)

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Pali Reen I think the ideal age of the students would be late teens or university going. The book is not just about the English classics and how they are analysed but how revolutionaries fool students to start an uprising and then go about controlling them almost in exactly the same way as the regimes they overthrow. A universal book from that aspect.

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Donna Ledington I read this in 2008 and it follows a university teacher and the struggles she faces trying to provide a well rounded literary experience for her female students as they undergo the changes that the mullahs bring to the education of women in Iran. You really get a clear picture of what life began to be like as women who previously were very free became very suppressed. I would suggest later high school to answer your question.

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