Revision: Reading about Courage in Tehran

I first read Reading Lolita in Tehran by Dr. Azar Nafisi at the end of last summer for Ms. Sanders’ AP Language class. Initially, the novel caught my attention because of the upheaval and coup in Turkey that occurred in June 2016. My best friend, Rana, was staying with her family in a small town in Turkey about an hour away from Istanbul, on the Asian side of the country. She told me of her first-hand experiences with the police searches and arrests and I genuinely feared that she would not be able to leave the country. Nafisi’s novel drew me in because it depicted a similar world of political fear, only set decades prior.

This summer I wanted to revisit her novel in a less tumultuous time so that I could better appreciate the work.

The memoir surprised me. Most of the western world believes that they have the east figured out: non-Christian (Muslim, Jewish, Hindu, etc.), politically and/or religiously radical, constantly fights amongst themselves, hate the west and western values, and, most importantly in the minds of many, large exporters of oil. Similarly, many in the Middle East have one-dimensional views of the western world, whether those be positive or negative views. Nafisi explores these views throughout her work both directly, by discussing politics, and indirectly, by discussing the different opinions of western literature.

Nafisi also explores different types of strength throughout her work. The oppression and disrespect that women received under the Iranian regime took great courage to withstand. She shares her story and the stories of other women to show that while much of their freedom is taken away, they continued to fight for their happiness.

Nafisi is an Iranian native who grew up during the Shah of Iran’s reign, when women’s rights were some of the most progressive in the world. Western values, culture, and literature were celebrated and women were enfranchised. While the Shah suppressed religious and traditional laws, such as the wearing of the hijab and the separation of the sexes, he promoted western ideals and modernized much of Iran, allowing for intellectuals, such as Nafisi to enjoy large amounts of freedom. This freedom caused her to love Tehran and Iran as a place of culture and wisdom.

Throughout her novel, Nafisi compares the staunch, and often oppressive, ideals of the revolutionaries with her own intellectual values. She returned to Iran, after years living in the United States and Switzerland, in 1979, after the Iranian Revolution. When she arrived, she found a whole new Tehran, which now oppressed women and forced the following of Islamic law. Nafisi taught western literature classes at the University of Tehran, where she met people from varying degrees of ideological background. Some of these students and other teachers were very supportive of the new regime. She was shocked at the degrees to which women are suppressed: many men will refuse to meet her eyes or shake her hand, women cannot run on campus, if women wear their hijab too loosely or wear makeup they can be expelled. These revolutionaries usually vehemently hated the United States and anything relating to the west. Their negative views of the west are one main point of Nafisi’s criticism. She faults them for their prejudice and refusal to see modernism as progressive and beneficial. She views herself as worldly, and, more importantly, respectful. As an educated and democratic person, she believes that everyone should be treated equally, in a manner that is closer to western ideals than eastern.

However, Nafisi does not idealize western values. She instead remains as an in-between, going from her love of Iran and eastern culture to her appreciation of western values. She looks to both as having benefits and faults. This idea is central to her work and what she wants her readers to understand the most: no one culture has found the key to perfection.

Not only does Nafisi inform her readers of this message, but she also forces her dedicated female students to understand it. Many of them look to the west as a place of hope and a land without the harsh oppression that they have been forced to carry for over a decade. They read literature like Henry James and Jane Austen and, while they don’t always agree with the message or the values, see opportunity for women to date, marry, and, most importantly, live on their own terms – despite the outcome, such as Daisy Miller’s death. Nafisi stresses this point to them. She desperately wants them to learn that while the world they live in, with the hijabs, police, and social restrictions, is not acceptable, the western world will not give them idealistic lives. The west has just as many problems and faults, simply in different aspects.

One of the greatest fears of Nafisi is that all of the true Iranians will leave, due to oppression, and no one will remain to improve Iran for future generations. These people fear that the younger generations who only know of the repressive Iran will quit, hopeless and cultureless, abandoning the landscape for the tyrants and oppressors. And this is an understandable fear. Would they rather give their children a better life, away from the censorship and oppression of the regime, or remain to preserve a culture that controls almost every aspect of their daily lives? This is a hard decision for Nafisi. While she ultimately chooses the former, the decision still nags her. She feels as if she has let down many people, especially her students who looked to her as an example of a strong female in the face of the government.

Yet, she still has hope for Iran and for her students. Throughout the novel, Nafisi stresses that while they are victimized by the government, they are not weak. These oppressed, quiet women are strong individuals who have very ardent beliefs and have no fear in retaining them. Nafisi highlights this point to the reader by saying, “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. Lolita was not a critique of the Islamic Republic, but it went against the grain of all totalitarian perspectives” (35). Her girls, as she calls them, are courageous and will fight for better lives for themselves and the people they care about. While they appear to follow traditions and be obedient, they dare to have their nails painted, wear slight touches of make-up, and find love. And lastly, they venture to read and debate western values. They criticize, they disapprove, they approve, and they appreciate these works because these books didn’t follow the boundaries of society, as her students must.

“The most obvious example [of courage] is Daisy [Miller], Nassrin said. She pushed herself forward with an effort, tried to brush an imaginary strand of hair from her forehead and continued. Daisy tells Winterbourne at the very start not to be afraid. She means not to be afraid of conventions and tradition – that is one kind of courage” (248).

In the end, the girls must find this courage – to be themselves, to search for love, and to see both the admirable and atrocious parts in all of the world.

“And it's hard to dance with a devil on your back

And given half the chance would I take any of it back

It's a fine romance but it's left me so undone

It's always darkest before the dawn”

-          “Shake It Out” by Florence + the Machine