Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books is a non-fiction book by Iranian author and academic Azar Nafisi, published in 2003. It is based on her own experiences while teaching English literature at the University of Tehran during the Iranian Revolution.
Plot The book is a memoir of Nafisi's experiences about returning to Iran during the revolution (1978–1981) and living under the Islamic Republic of Iran government until her departure in 1997. It narrates her teaching at the University of Tehran after 1979, her refusal to submit to the rule to wear the veil and her subsequent expulsion from the University, life during the Iran–Iraq War, her return to teaching at the University of Allameh Tabatabei (1981), her resignation (1987), the formation of her book club (1995–97), and her decision to emigrate. Events are interlaced with the stories of book club members consisting of seven of her female students who met weekly at Nafisi's house to discuss works of Western literature, including the controversial Lolita, and the texts are interpreted through the books they read.
Structure The book is divided into four sections: "Lolita", "Gatsby", "James", and "Austen".
"Lolita" deals with Nafisi as she resigns from The University of Allameh Tabatabei and starts her private literature class with students Mahshid, Yassi, Mitra, Nassrin, Azin, Sanaz, and Manna. They talk not just about Lolita, but One Thousand and One Nights and Invitation to a Beheading. The main themes are oppression, jailers as revolutionary guards try to assert their authority through certain events such as a vacation gone awry and a runaway convict.
"Gatsby" is set about 11 years before "Lolita", just as the Iranian revolution starts. The reader learns how some Iranians' dreams, including the author's, became shattered through the government's imposition of new rules. Nafisi's student Mr. Nyazi puts the novel on trial, claiming it condones adultery. Chronologically, this is the first part of Nafisi's story. The Great Gatsby and Mike Gold's works are discussed in this part. The reader meets Nassrin.
Nafisi states that the Gatsby chapter is about the American dream, the Iranian dream of revolution and the way it was shattered for her; the James chapter is about uncertainty and the way totalitarian mindsets hate uncertainty; and Austen is about the choice of women, a woman at the center of the novel saying no to the authority of her parents, society, and welcoming a life of dire poverty in order to make her own choice.
"James" takes place right after "Gatsby", when the Iran–Iraq War begins and Nafisi is expelled from the University of Tehran along with a few other professors. The veil becomes mandatory and she states that the government wants to control the liberal-minded professors. Nafisi meets the man she calls her "magician", seemingly a literary academic who had retired from public life at the time of the revolution. Daisy Miller and Washington Square are the main texts. Nassrin reappears after spending several years in prison.
"Austen" succeeds "Lolita" as Nafisi plans to leave Iran and the girls discuss the issue of marriages, men and sex. The only real flashback (not counting historical background) is into how the girls and Nafisi toyed with the idea of creating a Dear Jane society. While Azin deals with an abusive husband and Nassrin plans to leave for England, Nafisi's magician reminds her not to blame all of her problems on the Islamic Republic. Pride and Prejudice, while the main focus, is used more to reinforce themes about blindness and empathy.
Throughout the book, Nafisi tackles the question of what is a hero and a villain in literature. Each independent section of the book examines notions of heroism and villainy by connecting characters from books such as Invitation to a Beheading or The Great Gatsby to others. The basis of her definition of heroism and villainy is the connection between characters who are "blind to other's problems" Azar Nafisi, Reading Lolita in Tehran, (Random House, New York.2004), p.132 such as Humbert Humbert in Lolita and characters who can empathize. This theme is intertwined with that of oppression and blindness.
Title The title refers to Vladimir Nabokov's novel Lolita, a story about a middle-aged man who has a sexual relationship with a 12-year-old pubescent girl. Lolita is used by the author as a metaphor for life in the Islamic Republic of Iran. Although the book states that the metaphor is not allegorical (p. 35), Nafisi does want to draw parallels between "victim and jailer" (p. 37). The author implies that, like the principal character in Lolita, the newly formed Islamic government in Iran imposes its own "dream upon our reality, turning us into his figments of imagination." In both cases, the protagonist commits the "crime of solipsizing another person's life."
Background Nafisi's account flashes back to the early days of the revolution, when she first started teaching at the University of Tehran amid the swirl of protests and demonstrations. In 1980, Nafisi claims she was dismissed from the University of Tehran for refusing to wear a veil; she subsequently pursued an independent writing career, bore two children, and, after a long hiatus from teaching, took a full-time job at Allameh Tabatabaii University where she resumed the teaching of fiction.
The book also discusses issues concerning the politics of Iran during and after the Iranian revolution, the Iran–Iraq War, and the Iranian people in general. In one instance, for example, Nafisi's students ridicule Iranian soldiers who served and died during Iran–Iraq War. She writes: "[The students] were making fun of the dead student and laughing. They joked that his death was a marriage made in heaven – didn't he and his comrades say that their only beloved was God?"
Nafisi also describes how her freedom was restricted and why she had to leave Tehran University in 1981: "I told her I did not want to wear the veil in the classroom. Did I not wear the veil, she asked, when ever I went out? Did I not wear it in the grocery store and walking down the street? It seemed I constantly had to remind people that the university was not a grocery store." Later making a compromise and accepting the veil, Nafisi came back to academia and resumed her career in Iranian universities until 1995.
The issue of the headscarf in Iranian society is a running theme in the book. In Nafisi's words: "My constant obsession with the veil had made me buy a very wide black robe with kimonolike sleeves, wide and long. I had gotten to the habit of withdrawing my hands into the sleeves and pretending that I had no hands." Ayatollah Khomeini decreed Iranian women must follow the Islamic dress code on March 7, 1979. In Nafisi's view, the headscarf was the icon of oppression in the aftermath of the revolution. In referring to Khomeini's funeral, she writes that "[t]he day women did not wear the scarf in public would be the real day of his death and the end of his revolution." The Ayatollah Khomeini had established the new regime after a referendum on March 30 and 31, 1979, in which more than 98% of the Iranian people voted for the creation of the republic. Before this revolution, Iranian women had not been obliged to wear a veil for almost 60 years; contrarily, women who did wear headscarves had been banned from most universities and could not work as government employees.
Although Nafisi criticizes the Iranian government, she also calls for self-criticism. In her speech at the 2004 National Book Festival, she declared that "[i]t is wrong to put all the blame on the Islamic regime or ... on the Islamic fundamentalists. It is important to probe and see what ... you [did] wrong to create this situation."
To The New York Times, Nafisi stated that "[p]eople from my country have said the book was successful because of a Zionist conspiracy and U.S. imperialism, and others have criticized me for washing our dirty laundry in front of the enemy."
Release and reception Published in 2003, Teaching Lolita in Tehran was on the New York Times bestseller list for over 100 weeks and has been translated into many languages.
Adaptations February 2011 saw the premiere of a concert performance of an opera based on Reading Lolita in Tehran at the University of Maryland School of Music, with music by doctoral student Elisabeth Mehl Greene and a libretto co-written by Iranian-American poet Mitra Motlagh. Nafisi was closely involved in the development of the project, and participated in an audience Q&A session after the premiere.
Film adaptation The film Reading Lolita in Tehran was presented for marketing by Zayn Williams at the Cannes Film Market in May 2023. The film was directed by award-winning Israeli director Eran Riklis, written by Marjorie David, and stars Golshifteh Farahani, Zar Amir Ebrahimi, and Mina Kavani. The film is an Italian-Israeli co-production and was shot in Italy.
Ebrahimi faced criticism from some of her Palestinian colleagues for working with Israeli filmmakers, but she emphasized that the project represents an artistic act of resistance against war. Nafisi noted that the film resonates with ongoing struggles in Iran, especially following the death of Mahsa Amini and the rise of the slogan "Woman, Life, Freedom." Nafisi stated that the film seeks to convey the message that both the Iranian and Israeli governments are driving not only their own countries but the entire region into war, and that the film underscores the message that "hate won’t work."
The film won the Audience Award and a special jury prize Rome Film Festival in October 2024.
Criticism Nafisi's memoir of her life during the revolution and the years following prompted many reactions from a wide range of perspectives—from the libertarian Reason magazine, the conservative American Enterprise, to the liberal Nation. Most critics have commended Nafisi's defiance of the norms of the oppressive government, while others have praised the book's portrayal of the subservient position and hardships experienced by women in contemporary Iran. There were also some negative reviews, appearing in the neoconservative Commentary magazine, among other publications.DePaul, Amy. “Re-Reading ‘Reading Lolita in Tehran.’” MELUS, vol. 33, no. 2, 2008, pp. 73–92., .
Positive criticism of this readership often includes the book's depiction of great literature. For example, Margaret Atwood in her review in Amnesty magazine calls the reading "enthralling," while Heather Hewett of the Christian Science Monitor notes the book's "passionate defense of literature" that will "resonate with anyone who loves books, or who wants (or needs) to be reminded why books matter." Many comments and reviews alike note the importance of the existence of literature as a mode of refuge from tyranny and oppression, in turn giving faith to the voice of an individual. According to them, the influence of this book is two-fold. Firstly, it serves as a source of comfort for readers in hardships. Secondly, the book depicts the ways that literature speaks to readers according to the particularities of their circumstances and locations.
In a critical article published in the academic journal Comparative American Studies titled 'Reading Azar Nafisi in Tehran', Head of the North American Studies Department at University of Tehran Professor Seyed Mohammad Marandi argued that "Nafisi constantly confirms what orientalist representations have regularly claimed" and argued she "has produced gross misrepresentations of Iranian society and Islam and that she uses quotes and references which are inaccurate, misleading, or even wholly invented."