Questions answered by Kristine Knutter, Youth Programs Coordinator for PTPI.
6. Life in the Islamic Republic as described by Nafisi was burdened with censorship, fear and anti-west propaganda. Discuss how this affects individuals and societies collectively.
The author Azar Nafisi was extremely frustrated with a leftist Marxist organization, which included her student Mahtab. The group felt that “focusing on women’s rights was individualist and bourgeois and played into their (the government) hands.” However, Nafisi and other women knew that women’s problems were very real. Not only women prostitutes were being stoned to death. Nafisi’s former school principal was accused of “corruption on earth, sexual offenses and violation off the decency of morality.” The accusations were not because of lewd actions but because she was the minister of education. For this, she was either stoned or shot to death.
One of my favorite quotes is by Edmund Burk and follows, “No passion so effectively robs the mind of all its powers of acting and reasoning as fear.”
I think that Azar Nafisi and her closest female students demonstrated defiance and courage in an environment in which fear and the morality police ran rampant. Both publicly and privately they engaged in rebellions acts such as allowing strands of hair to show from beneath their chador. In addition to publicly protesting the Government’s role in degrading women’s rights, Nafisi engaged in her personal passion of incessant reading and writing. (It’s clear she wasn’t reading religious texts but rather; chose texts she most enjoyed.) She wrote on page 112, “I felt a silent defiance that may also have shaped my public desire to defend a vague and amorphous entity I thought of as myself.” I think Nafisi showed great courage in holding onto her individual values despite the potential consequences.
8. Did you find any parallels between the characters in the book and your own life? What kind of parallels or lessons did you learn from the book?
One of the lessons that I learned from this book are that if you are passionate about something, you can use your own unique talents to make a difference. In addition, one must allow themselves to feel pan to better deal with tragedy.
Nafisi details how the American-British author Henry James was not able to physically participate in World War I because of a back injury though he supported and aided the British through writing letters. In one of his letters to a friend whose husband was killed he wrote, “Feel, feel, I say—feel for all you’re worth, and even if it half kills you, for that is the only way to live, especially to live at this terrible pressure, and the only way to honour and celebrate these admirable beings who are our pride and our inspiration.”
I think that when people experience tragedy it can be difficult to allow themselves to feel pain. It’s hard to think clearly and learn from experiences if we don’t allow ourselves this experience. While I cannot imagine trying to allow yourself to feel pain for all of the tragedies that unfold while your country is in a conflict, I still feel it’s a better alternative than allowing yourself to become numb or act out violently. Nafisi writes, “Feeling would stir up empathy and would remind them that life was worth living.”
The opinions expressed by PTPI staff and other book club members are entirely their own and are not necessarily the views of People to People International or that of PTPI’s Officers, Board of Directors and Board of Trustees.
Tags: Azar Nafisi, Global Book Club, Iran, Reading Lolita in Tehran
Kristine’s comments are very good. I think I was surprised to learn about the depths of the propaganda and the hatred for the West. It made me very sad to realize for how long this perception of the West has been villified. Hatred becomes such a learned trait — passed down to generations. It makes PTPI’s goals of Peace through Understanding all the more important. We must break down barriers of miscommunication. There’s a paragraph in the book when Nafisi describes that the posters at the university were more about the way to think and behave rather than about upcoming events, programs or lectures.
In Kristine’s post, she shared a quote from Edmund Burk which addresses the subject of fear. I enjoyed reading this quote and felt that it very accurately describes the environment in which Nafisi and her students were living. I believe it is true that fear often robs an individual, and sometimes an entire society, of their ability to think clearly and act with reason. Fear is definitely one of the most powerful weapons in the world and in this sense, it is very frightening. I have great respect for individuals who find the courage and willpower to speak out in the midst of this type of fear and stand up for something they believe in. The fact that Nafisi and her students were willing to participate in their book club each week, knowing the risks involved, is very admirable.
I have to say I agree with some of the posts here. I have not read many of the books that are dealt with in this book. I now plan on reading some of them as my interest is piqued. I am not quite done with the book, but some thoughts have come up while I was reading. The chapter that dealt with the students parroting back her lectures struck me as very similar to an experience I had with a student from Hong Kong studying at the university near me. I was telling her about asking my 4th graders their opinions on animals in captivity or in the wild and she just stared back. I asked why and was told they also are taught to memorize from an early age and they are not allowed to have opinions, their teachers just lecture to them. I told her I found that sad, having been raised to have opinions about things from my parents. I also believe having taught almost 20 years at 1st through 8th grades, that often times students learn things from their peers that they don’t quite understand from their teachers.
I was also amazed to think in a country like Iran and their “official” speak of the woman’s place in society, that they seem to encourage women to get higher level degrees and to teach. As long as it is what “they” want them to teach I guess.
I think I was also surprised at how easily they can travel to other countries without any kind of official hassle. I would think they would be worried if someone went to visit another country they would be worried that they would not come back to Iran after seeing life on the other side of the fence.
I believe the professor must be an amazing woman to have held these clandestine meetings in her home, knowing what punishments she could face. I am not sure any of us that have been born in the U.S. would be able to say what we might have done in that same situation. It is one thing to be told by my father that I can not get my ears pierced and have to wait until I am 18 to do it without his permission, while it is totally different to be told by your government to do or not to do something.
Those are just some of the many thoughts that have been going through my head as I am reading the book. It is an excellent book and I have already suggested it to people. Many of my friends aren’t as globally crazy or aware and wanting to know about other countries and cultures as I am.