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"A beautiful memoir by Ms. Nafisi about her homeland, its loves and its losses; about the ways we survive, as women, as human beings, through small acts of bravery and the unconquerable imagination. It is amazing to me how the reading of fiction can be a political act, but in places like Ms. Nafisi’s Iran, where she slowly watches the world as she knew it crumble around her and clings to literature to save herself and her sanity, one becomes a believer. It also doesn’t hurt that Ms. Nafisi, a renowned teacher, is a great writer as well."
Marlo Thomas - Writer

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Every Thursday morning for two years in the Islamic Republic of Iran, a bold and inspired teacher named Azar Nafisi secretly gathered seven of her most committed female students to read forbidden Western classics. As Islamic morality squads staged arbitrary raids in Tehran, fundamentalists seized hold of the universities, and a blind censor stifled artistic expression, the girls in Azar Nafisi's living room risked removing their veils and immersed themselves in the worlds of Jane Austen, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Henry James, and Vladimir Nabokov. In this extraordinary memoir, their stories become intertwined with the ones they are reading. "Reading Lolita in Tehran is a remarkable exploration of resilience in the face of tyranny and a celebration of the liberating power of literature.

Related Categories:
Books > Biography & Autobiography > Ethnic Cultures - General
Books > Biography & Autobiography > Women
Books > Literary Criticism > Regional, Ethnic, Genre, Specific Subject

Reading Lolita in Tehran

This poignant memoir from Nafisi, a professor of literature who teaches at Johns Hopkins University, is sure to resonate with readers. A native of Iran, Nafisi left the country to attend university, then returned to become a teacher in Tehran. When she resigned from her school because of its repressive atmosphere, she formed a group with some of her best female students, and they began a secret study of Western literature. The meetings quickly became an outlet for political and personal debate, as the women shared stories of love, marriage and persecution under the Iranian government. Blending their personal anecdotes with wonderful evaluations of the work of Vladimir Nabokov, Jane Austen and F. Scott Fitzgerald, among others, Nafisi's book is a fascinating portrait of the female experience in modern-day Iran and a testament to the redemptive power of literature—a luxury most of us take for granted. A reading group guide is included in the book.