Books for Book Clubs
Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books
Finding Joy in Your Insignificance
By Darla Gaylor
“‘Let’s celebrate!’ my friend Laleh [a fellow college professor] cried…’Today…after nine years…I was formally expelled from the university. I am now officially irrelevant…so lunch is on me! Since we can’t drink publicly to my newly acquired status, let’s eat ourselves to death,’ she added in a brave effort to make light of a development that would leave her penniless and, more important, force her to give up a job she loved and was good at. Stiff upper lip, I believe they call it. Well, this stiff upper lip was becoming quite a trend among friends and colleagues.” 1
Dr. Azar Nafisi wrote this in her journal just as she, too, was about to become “irrelevant” in a governmental system that placed little value on women, and even less on highly educated ones. Her passion was teaching great literary works of the West, but in the newly formed Islamic Republic of Iran, that was a career path with about as much advancement potential as an Institute teacher in a Buddhist monastery.
The Book
When I was asked to do a column on book recommendations for book clubs, I almost immediately knew what I would suggest to you first. Once I began to reread my potential selection, to remember what I loved about it, the perfection of its choice became evident. Reading Lolita in Tehran : A Memoir in Books , is a story deep with meaning about living fully when merely existing is a daily spiritual challenge.
The Story
A small group of select women gather secretly each Thursday morning at the Tehran apartment of an influential former college professor. Here, they shed their oppressive robes and veils in order to immerse themselves in the exploration of the forbidden: western literature, wherein they will study the likes of Nabakov, Austen, and Fitzgerald. These classes continue for two years, the professor is Azar Nafisi, and these women are her “girls,” cherished former students from her teaching days in several Iranian universities.
It is from the chronicles of these meetings and her memories of life during and after the revolution that brought the Ayatollah Khomeini to power, that Nafisi creates the framework for Reading Lolita in Tehran .
I first read this book about three years ago. I don’t exactly know what my thoughts were that night at Target, when I was searching its book aisles for my next reading project. Maybe I was still considering the expansion of my world Khaled Hosseini’s Kite Runner and Greg Mortenson’s Three Cups of Tea had initiated. Maybe I was intrigued by the idea of something exploratory going on in a militant Islamic country. No matter why I selected it, I did, and it affected my views on the middle eastern people profoundly. I love this book for its multifaceted nature, there’s something for everyone. In a mere 343 pages, Azar Nafisi is able to meld together literary critique and exposition, state history, political expostulation, and a moving story of love, friendship, and the struggle to hold fast to one’s dreams and individual identity in the face of violent opposition. For book club fodder, it can’t get much better.
I’m going to split this recommendation into two parts. First, I will tell you why I think you should read this book and to whom I believe it will appeal. Second, I’ll give you a heads up about problems you may find with Reading Lolita . Perhaps, an early explanation of all the pieces of Dr. Nafisi’s story will help you value it as I do. It is a rather complex tale, maybe even a bit heavy for a inaugural column, and I fear some may drop it after the first ten pages. Please, don’t! Give it chance. I believe you will find your time well spent.
Reasons to Read this Book:
If you enjoy in-depth discussions about literature, this book will increase your understanding and appreciation of fiction. It also explores the role of fiction in our lives, why we value it, why we need it and how it affects us. Life can truly imitate art, and art, life.
“Those who judge must take all aspects of an individual’s personality into account. It is only through literature that one can put one’s self in someone else’s shoes and understand the other’s different and contradictory sides and refrain from becoming too ruthless. Outside the sphere of literature only one aspect of individuals is revealed. But if you understand their different dimensions you cannot easily murder them…If we had learned this one lesson from Dr. A our society would have been in much better shape today.” 2
This wise observation comes from a student at the University of Tehran, who recounts how she had watched with marked fear as the well-respected English Department head, “Dr. A,” testified on behalf of a one of his former students, who had been accused of certain crimes that could have resulted in a lengthy prison sentence. By speaking out, he did so at great risk to himself, but did it because of his sense of integrity, which he imparted to his students through the analysis of literary works.
On the eve of migrating back to the U.S in June, 1997, Dr. Nafisi wrote in her journal, “I have a recurring fantasy that one more article has been added to the Bill of Rights: the right to free access to imagination. I have come to believe that genuine democracy cannot exist without the freedom to imagine and the right to use imaginative works without any restrictions. To have a whole life, one must have the possibility of publicly shaping and expressing private worlds, dreams, thoughts and desires, of constantly having access to a dialogue between the public and private worlds. How else do we know that we have existed, felt, desired, hated, feared? 3 Such was her view on the importance of fiction.
Reading Lolita is full of such wisdom, tying life to the written word in a way I had never previously considered. I feel I am fairly educated in my scrutiny of books, though some reviews may be as deep as “I just liked it.” However, Nafisi’s layered exploration of her selected works gave me so much more to consider about them, the role of the characters and what important lessons can be drawn from their pages. She truly brings modern significance to words and characters, some of which were penned more than 200 years ago.
If you understand that this is indeed a “small-world ,” this book will make you see how, despite glaring differences, we are all unique beings within the global community of God’s children. We are individuals who struggle with daily decisions: family, education, career and politics. But as strongly as we may identify ourselves within the whole of our home lands, as Americans, Britons, Chinese, or Iranians, for example, we each deserve to be seen much more as the special souls we are.
All human beings express emotions; we laugh and cry, and sometimes scream. Azar Nafisi gives a face and a voice to a portion of post-revolution Iranians, and more specifically educated Iranian women, that many of us probably had little idea existed. She makes it possible for us to see these people as living, feeling individuals, not just as their evil country or even a government acting as a puppet of the masses, like the marionettes controlled by the wicked Stromboli in Disney’s Pinocchio.
Because we see the political processes in western countries up close every election cycle, we are aware of dissent, as well as accordance. However, I know I have rarely considered those in totalitarian regimes to be capable of independent thought. In the same way some see America as The Great Satan, as opposed to Americans , the rugged individualists we are, we are guilty of seeing Iran and like countries, as being bad macro scopically (the government), but not good in a more micro scopic fashion (the people).
Yes, just as we are opinionated and outspoken, they are, too. I suppose because they don’t stand up to be struck down and fight for their lives and freedoms successfully as large groups, like we might expect or even desire them to, we fail to see their faces and hear their singular voices; we only hear the rhetoric of their leaders. Nevertheless, as Dr. Nafisi demonstrates, they do fight -just in more subtle ways. Perhaps, they don’t revolt visibly because what it takes to make them happy and comfortable is different from our western ways. Can they handle tyranny and injustice better than us? Can they survive or even thrive without liberty, as we define it? It appears so, though the cost is greater than some are willing to pay and they find escape to be their best option, others stay to continue the quiet struggle from within.
If you are a woman, you will appreciate the instances of triumph and joy celebrated by our Iranian sisters in this brutal environment, as there are surprisingly light moments in Reading Lolita . One character, Yassi, the youngest of the author’s “girls,” provides some much needed comic relief at times! In fact, a private laugh with your friend, dinner with a mentor or a solitary walk down your street, all take on deeper significance when viewed through Mrs. Nafisi’s lens.
In reading this book, you cannot help but feel both horror and gratitude simultaneously. The horror comes as you read the accounts of women’s treatment and the rapid contraction of their individual freedoms under the new Islamic government; the gratitude, as you thank the heavens above you are in a democratic country with endless opportunity for growth and expression.
“The government didn’t take long to pass new regulations restricting women’s clothing in public and forcing us to wear either a chador or a long robe and scarf…Disobedience was punished by fines, up to seventy-six lashes and jail terms. Later,” she notes, “the government created the notorious morality squads: four armed men and women [patrolling the streets], ensuring the enforcement of the laws.” 4
“Oppressed” seems a small and inadequate term to describe the lives of women under Iran’s Islamic theocracy. The Western women feeling downtrodden by their societies will, perhaps, feel better about their situations after reading this book. For a highly opinionated, outspoken, and often emotional, sister, such as myself, I can’t imagine living long in that environment. I probably would have been an early casualty of the death squads.
Additionally, as one who enjoys character studies, I was very touched by the intimate descriptions the author gave of her dear girls and numerous associates. She has a way of making you seek to know even the most terrible of people and desire to have many others as close friends.
If you are open to having your prejudices exposed and perhaps obliterated, by the end of Section I you will want to embrace, instead of scorn, the tragic child character, Lolita. Truly, a number of things in this book fall under the heading of “reality altering,” but as fiction goes, her story touched me the most.
I went into this text with a highly biased view of that “little vixen,” and came away with an ache in my heart because of my ignorant judgments; judgments not based on knowledge, mind you, for I had not read Nabakov’s book, but based on the societal meaning I had accepted for a “Lolita.” From countless movies to The Police’s 1980 hit single, Don’t Stand So Close to Me, to the moniker given Amy Fisher in 1992, “The Long Island Lolita,” popular culture established its own definition for the name. Even if you never get the gumption to investigate the original work ( I don’t think I can) , read Azar Nafisi’s analysis of Lolita and exonerate this poor girl in your own mind. She is a character deserving of comfort and refuge, not derision; she is not what we were lead to believe. Those labeled “Lolitas,” because of their aberrant behaviors, are terribly misnamed. Maybe you too have been misjudged, I think we all have at one time or another. If so, may Lolita’s case resonate with you as it did me.
If you enjoy politics and history, Nafisi offers an insider’s view of Iran from just before the revolution of 1979 to the mid-1990s, and includes commentary on the Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s. I found her descriptions of the various factions struggling for control of the government very informative. We hear terms like “Fedayin,” “Marxist,” “Mujahideen,” and “Leftist,” but don’t always know exactly what they mean; in our ignorance, the terms seem rather interchangeable. Yet, in the context of the Iranian revolution, our storyteller graphically illustrates them for us and shows very clearly what can happen when extremists seize control. It is truly chilling.
I was in third grade when the American embassy hostages were taken in Tehran. I recall watching the news with my family each night and seeing the daily tally number in the corner of the T.V. screen which represented the total days they had been held captive. I also remember fearing a nuclear attack from their ally, Russia, should the U.S. go in with ground troops to free our people. At the time, we lived near Carswell A.F.B in Ft. Worth, Texas, and as it was a base of some size and significance, making it a prime target, I just knew my family would be killed should Russia decide to nuke the U.S..
Admittedly, those were heady fears for an 8-year-old (I was a high-strung kid!), but can you imagine what it was like having a front row seat in Tehran? If not, be thankful, but also be sympathetic. Despite the mobs in the streets we saw on TV, not all the millions of Iranians hated America then, just as not all of them hate us now. And though exciting to some groups, the times were eerie and dangerous to most others. It must have been just like surviving the French guillotine, the Bolshevik Revolution or Tiananmen Square.
Internal conflict in the 80s was not Iran’s only problem. Considerable references to the external battle in which Iran was engaged with Saddam Hussein are interwoven in the story as well. Reading at times like the History Channel documentaries I have watched when the subjects were Londoners who had survived the terrors of the German Blitzkrieg of World War II, the author gives us that same ‘survivor’s view’ of the Iran-Iraq War.
“The war with Iraq began that September [1980] and did not end until late July 1988. Everything that happened to us during those eight years of war, and the direction our lives took afterward,” Dr. Nafisi observes, “was in someway shaped by this conflict” 5
The author also paints us a interesting portrait of dichotomy with the description of herself as a young revolutionary in the U.S. at the University of Oklahoma in the 1970s versus that of a university professor trying to teach in the midst of such militants. The reality of “revolution,” once she saw it fleshed out in Tehran, stands in stark contrast to the idealism embraced by herself and her college classmates, as they lead protests against just about everything, demanding some nebulous “Change,” the implications of which they had no true understanding.
Her experiences act as a warning to all of us trapped in the middle of the extremist factions of both the political left and right. Although polar opposites in ideology, the radical revolutionaries of Nafisi’s Iran are the same as the radicals vying for power today in many of our own universities and governments. Section III on James makes this concept “crystal clear.”
Things to Know About This Book
* As I mentioned earlier, this is a complicated book, not a quick read. When I first opened Reading Lolita in Tehran , I mistakenly thought it would merely be a literary exposition revolving around a secret class Ms. Nafisi taught in her home in the mid-1990s, but as you can see from the first section in this review, it encompasses more material than several semester long college courses.
* The story does not unfold in a traditional, linear fashion. So, you have to keep up! In her own defense, the author reminds us, “Life in the Islamic Republic was always too explosive, too dramatic and chaotic, to shape into the desired order required for a narrative effect.” 6 Accordingly, she bounces us between classes, meetings and time periods, conversations and character sketches -both real and fictional, life in books and life in Tehran. Let yourself flow with her narrative, otherwise it may drive you away from reading this beautiful book. Enjoy the magic of her words and the vividness of her simple, but powerful descriptions.
* Some of the accounts in this book can be disquieting. I particularly found the deeper discussions in Section I about Nabkov’s Lolita difficult. Stick with it.
* Certain reports about the revolution and the treatment of some people in the story, though not particularly graphic, may be uncomfortable to read.I found myself cringing at points. Free agency unfolds in some ugly ways in our telestial world. Sadly, most lives here are light years from Paradise. Opening ourselves to authors who endeavor to acquaint us with the dreadful things of life in books like Reading Lolita in Tehran, develops within us a greater sense of awareness and empathy for the struggles of our brothers and sisters in oppression throughout the globe.
In the End
One criticism I read of Dr. Nafisi accused her of sounding ‘elitist,’ a charge that brings to mind the proletariat thugs of her days in Iran who raged ignorantly about the privileged aristocracy. I reject that term in favor of ‘introspective’ or ‘articulate.’ ‘Disappointed’ or ‘mournful’ may be even better words to characterize her voice, as I had a definite sense of sadness while Reading Lolita in my home, a heavy sorrow that comes from experiencing and proving true the old saying ‘You can never go home again.’ That is not to say there no hope within its pages, as there is much good to go with the bad, simple pleasures and moments of elation are in there, too.
Imagine seeing the country you love being violently destroyed and your life’s work losing significance at the hands of the destroyers. I, for one, am pleased that the author had the skill share this story with us. In fact, by the time I finished this book, I wanted to be part of her class, to sit in her special class as one of her select students, to learn and expand my knowledge of literature and of the world outside my own little sphere. In the end, I hope you will agree and find Azar Nafisi’s memoir to be just your cup of herbal tea. Upsilamba! Until next month…
Other books you might enjoy:
Non Fiction
Anne Frank, the Diary of a Young Girl
Three Cups of Tea, Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin
The Bookseller of Kabul, Asne Steirsrad
Lipstick Jihad: A Memoir of Growing Up Iranian in America and American in Iran, Azdeh Moaveni
Out of Africa, Isak Dinesen, a.k.a. Karen von Blixen
Fiction
The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns, Kahled Hosseini
Winter in Kandahar, Steven E. Wilson
Links
Reading Group Guides for Reading Lolita in Terhan
Notes:
1 Azar Nafisi, Reading Lolita in Tehran (New York: Random House, 2003) 160.
22 Nafisi 118.
33 Nafisi 339.
44 Nafisi 158.
55 Nafisi 167.