Used Book in Good Condition</br></br>Product Description</br></br>Every Thursday morning for two years in the Islamic Republic of Iran?? Azar Nafisi?? a bold and inspired teacher?? secretly gathered seven of her most committed female students to read forbidden Western classics. Some came from conservative and religious families?? others were progressive and secular; some had spent time in jail. They were shy and uncomfortable at first?? unaccustomed to being asked to speak their minds?? but soon they removed their veils and began to speak more freely?their stories intertwining with the novels they were reading by Jane Austen?? F. Scott Fitzgerald?? Henry James?? and Vladimir Nabokov. As Islamic morality squads staged arbitrary raids in Tehran?? as fundamentalists seized hold of the universities and a blind censor stifled artistic expression?? the women in Nafisi??s living room spoke not only of the books they were reading but also about themselves?? their dreams and disappointments.<br><br>Azar Nafisi??s luminous masterwork gives us a rare glimpse?? from the inside"es in revolutionary Iran. <i>Reading Lolita in Tehran</i> is a work of great passion and poetic beauty?? a remarkable exploration of resilience in the face of tyranny?? and a celebration of the liberating power of literature.</br></br>Amazon.com Review</br></br>An inspired blend of memoir and literary criticism?? <I>Reading Lolita in Tehran</I> is a moving testament to the power of art and its ability to change and improve people's lives. In 1995?? after resigning from her job as a professor at a university in Tehran due to repressive policies?? Azar Nafisi invited seven of her best female students to attend a weekly study of great Western literature in her home. Since the books they read were officially banned by the government?? the women were forced to meet in secret?? often sharing photocopied pages of the illegal novels. For two years they met to talk?? share?? and "r mandatory veils and robes and burst into color." Though most of the women were shy and intimidated at first?? they soon became emboldened by the forum and used the meetings as a springboard for debating the social?? cultural?? and political realities of living under strict Islamic rule. They discussed their harassment at the hands of "ality guards??"the daily indignities of living under the Ayatollah Khomeini's regime?? the effects of the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s?? love?? marriage?? and life in general?? giving readers a rare inside look at revolutionary Iran. The books were always the primary focus?? however?? and they becam