Reading Lolita In Tehran

I can't imagine waking up in a country where there is no freedom for women. In Reading Lolita In Tehran, Nafisi shows how the women in her "book club" were in exile in their own home involuntarily. When Nafisi went through a day in the life of one of the girls in the group (Sanaz-pg26), I was shocked. These women were forced to sit on the back of buses and be so fearful for their lives. The novel showed an internal exile because the women can't express their true identities and really accomplish whatever they want to put their minds to.

Dry
After reading Nabokov’s “Lolita”, Nafisi’s”reading Lolita in Tehran” was unable to keep my interest. i understood that it was a memoir but because of the title I figured that it would have much more to do with Nabokov’s “Lolita”. Overall I got the feeling that the book was more about women/feminist empowerment, more then the decision of the book “Lolita”. Even so, "Lolita" was not the only forbidden book that was read. In some ways Nafisi sets this up by defining the living room where she held her classes as a symbol of her “nomadic and borrowed life”. She also speaks of how Nobokov is a hero because he “refuses to be like the rest of us”. I think the goal of the author was to focus more on what Nabokov accomplished in writing Lolita,more then the novel itself. At any rate this was disappointing because I imagining their decisions and opinions to be more interesting. I'm not sure how this book was suppose to be read.

Her Veil

After reading the book: Reading Lolita in Tehran, through the eyes of an American, I realized the great lengths of Azar Nafisi's restriction and exile. I wonder however, how this would look in the eyes of an ardent Iranian...possibly inhumane? As it did, because her betrayal of Iranian culture, and refusal to wear a veil in the classroom dismayed and horrified others, and her exile from teaching was her lesson learned. I can't imagine being restricted to wearing certain clothes, or being a certain way, which is a very American belief, Nafisi risked her life, and the lives of those young girl to teach them classic western literature. Her exile remains in this secretive life she endures, and her exile from her former University. Disgrace in the Iranian culture: her request that she does not wear a veil while teaching seems so minor, because in America death has to occur before anybody does anything. (Embellished to make a point). Nafisi's courage and ultimate refusal of her veil, exiled her.

Appreciation for Literature

Azar Nafisi's Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books instilled in me a great sense of appreciation for literature and the ability to freely read and discuss great works. Sometimes we take it for granted that our society permits us to study the work of authors like Austen, Fitzgerald and Nabokov. Just last week we read Lolita and some portions seemed shocking even to us. For a novel like this to be read during the Iranian Revolution, while it was "banned Western literature" is truly remarkable.
I also found it the relationship between Nafisi and her students to be fascinating. The sheer range of topics they explore together is what made this read so interesting. They don't only focus on the classic Western novels, but their personal lives as well. I felt like this was an intriguing dimension that Nafisi included.

What this is not

I find Nafisi's statement at the beginning of chapter 10 about how to relate her story to Lolita intriguing. She writes, "I want to emphasize once more that we were not Lolita, the Ayatollah was not Humbert and this republic was not what Humbert called his princedom by the sea" (35).
I find this statement particularly interesting because she is so adamant about it. It seems logical to relate Nabokov's story to this memoir in this way. Why should Nafisi feel so strongly that this not occur? It seems counterintuitive for an author to tell their reader that they should not read a text in one specific, and especially obvious, way.

Literature As An Escape

After reading the novel entitled Reading Lolita in Tehran I acknowledge how lucky I am because I can be an independent, educated, opinionated young woman. I have the freedom to express myself in whatever manner I wish, I can dress according to my individual choice, and I can do whatever a man can do, who knows maybe even better. This memoir really opened my eyes to the sad, but realistic lives, and challenges women in Tehran. In my opinion, these women turned to literature as an escape from society, and its unfair rules and regulations. If I was living in Iran I would have been one of these students, sneaking out and secretly attending the Thursday mornings session. By reading many different works of literature, I believe that they found it to be an escape, or some sort of familiarity. At some point in the novel it states, "...the most central of which was how these great works of imagination could help us in our present trapped situation as women. We were not looking for blue-prints, for an easy solution, but we did hope to find a link between the open spaces the novel provided and the closed ones we were confined to" (p.19). But as it is said, where there is a will, there is a way. This group of yound women, came together and worked together as a team in their fight against their repression, and the rise to their liberation.

Nafisi's Tale

This story is a certain example of exile because Nafisi was forever banned from teaching and her friend explained “You are aware….that you are more and more withdrawing into yourself, and now that you have cut your relations with the university, your whole contact with the outside world will be mainly restricted to one room” (11). Nafisi did resign from teaching on her own because of the unfair treatment of the university to teach her own lessons. Iran, where the story took place, is seen as a dictatorship because students as well as professors were reprimanded if rules were not followed.
It is sad to see that in this stage at life that people are still unable to do whatever they please. To have to undermine higher school officials and read forbidden topics is something that is still common in certain parts of the world. Countries like Iran should leave it up to the discretion of the professor to decide what should be read.

Reading Lolita in Tehran and the lack of Colors

Reading Lolita in Tehran is deeper than just the mere act of reading lolita, it is the act of creating a parallel dimension under the name of literature. It is a memoir of the creation of colors in a moment and place in time in which everything seems clear. Nafisi mentions her fascination about the idea of creating colors of from dreams she says: The color of my dreams, I repeated to myself [...]I liked that. How many people get a chance to paint colors of their dreams?(11). What she does not seem to realize is that, that is exactly what she creates for herself and the girls through the exploration of various literary works and their colorful characters.
Furthermore, this book is about exile,but not just any exile, the exile of a woman in her own country "This is Tehran for me: Its absences were more real than its presences." (Nafisi 5). Nafisi establishes the fact that being in tehran was the lack and nostalgia for what she remembered of her native country, as if returning to her homeland in 1979 was the same as destroying every single one of the memories that she had ever created.