Azar Nafisi Memoirs Reading Lolita: In Tehran

Nafisi uses her own personal accounts from the beginning of the Islamic Revolution, to glancing at the Iran-Iraq war from Tehran, to holding secret meetings with female students to open up their minds to Western literature. Social movements have rose over the years attempting to solidify certain inputs into the political system . Ultimately trying to provide women with more power and freedom than years past.

Nafisi discusses how censorship within Iran limited the understanding of reality from fiction. Where Iranian parliament and its committee of investigators provide rules on what is to be read, the universities and women are the main targets of these investigations. Worlds have to be built within the walls of their homes where women can be free to where colorful shirts, fingernail polish, earrings, and read anything they wish to in secrecy. However, stricter rules apply to those that walk in the streets with a man that is not a relative or spouse, and adultery or prostitution is still a crime punishable by stone throwing. This discrimination over the course of time has allowed women to become a greater influence of power even though the idea is to prevent that from happening. Due mostly to the overgrowing population of women throughout the country.

Unfortunately the preservation of these laws and ideals that are based on discrimination towards women, they continue to be treated as citizens only of second class nature. However Iran's political society addresses an uphill climb as women slowly begin to have new roles that intertwine their influences which over time will change history throughout Iran and give them more freedom and power. In an effort to contain the situation Islamic fundamentalists will still contend that the male gender is superior and women are slaves. They believe that women are satanic and full of temptation living in sin. As we spoke about adultery earlier if a married woman fails to have sexual relations with the man, he is granted permission to seek it elsewhere, as women doing the same are punished.

An Islamic Republic is the rule that dictates these laws integrating principles of Sharia. Sharia is the way of Islamic law which delegates a few private affairs of ones life based on Muslim principles and everyday affairs such as politics, economics, and social issue that arise splitting it up as acts of worship and human interaction. As religion plays a major role in the laws, it is the people who are given the opportunity to select their President, Islamic Consultative Assembly, an members of the Guardian Council who uphold these laws. The Assembly of Experts is able to give and take away powers of the president which leaves us at a dead end. Since it is up to the people to elect the Assembly of Experts which govern eighty-six officials there is much left to be said that they are either voting for these laws to take place, or the propaganda is an enormous influence amongst the women in Iran.

Today you will find many instances of women activists trying to gain more power within Iran. A recent campaign called a "Change for Equality" which is an effort to collect one million signatures in hopes to protest against the discrimination of women in Iran. Six of the protesters were actually sentenced to imprisonment for their participation in the protesting. Continuously women are standing up for their rights and creating a national security for Iran which although is contained at the moment it is only a matter of time before these laws are overrun and changed throughout Iran.

Going back through the history of woman's suffrage in Iran, events that were once considered offensive or not law abiding have become monumental starting points to reach the level of movements that these women have campaigned for in more recent years. Soon after the Iran-Iraq War 1992 brought the magazine Zanan to the forefront which criticized the the systems legal code towards women in the country. While evident that gender equality is that of Islamic religion, the magazine argued that the religion was misread and misappropriated towards women by the male population. Shahla Sherkat, the publisher of Zanan began an ever growing debate with the magazine which led to the beginning of true movement of women's rights and letting their voice be heard as one. Although a prominent discussion the Islamic leaders of Iran tried to ignore evidence of such an accusation, but the world of Iran would no longer be silent.

As the movements became more evident and debated topics in the news, when Nafisi first published the book it was not without criticism. It caused debate as to if this was a plea for leaders such as President George W. Bush of the United States to go to war with Iran just as he did with Iraq. One of the most notable was the remarks of Hamid Dabishi, a long time intellectual historian and critic. Bias towards the Bush administration Dabishi questions the underlying power and suggestions over solving problems with the Middle East, and considers the United States Empire a menace to Third World countries which prompted the Dabisi to believe that Nafisi was only using her book as a propaganda tool to create more war. Which by many could be evident in the way the American novel is written with Iranian progressive ethics. Dabishi also contends that while the situation is dire, the "warmongering" as he put it of the United States in the adjoining areas where they are prominently at war already makes for a convenient situation to invade Iran. A well respected man as Hamid Dabishi is and covering studies of Iran at Columbia University, with many books and articles regarding different situations has caused Azar Nafisi's book Reading Lolita to be ridicule by Dabishi followers, but not by the majority of the nation.

Azar Nafisi did not publish Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir of Books until 2003, however much success from the efforts of Shahla Sherkat ten years prior was a reflection of Nasifi pleading her case to not only Iran, but the rest of the world that having the privilege to live in the United States only encouraged her efforts to break down the laws of Islamic rule towards women and create an equality between the two genders. As Nafisi suggests that the book is more evident towards showing the rest of the world the issues that women struggle through on an everyday basis and have been blinded by propaganda over the years and suggests that while Dabisi's comments are well noted they are not relevant to the situation as he suggests. Fortunately for the women of Iran, know one knew how devastating of an affect this would have on Islamic Rule as a whole and strive other women to voice their opinions on the situations. Which leaves us to wonder how many other "secret meetings" are being conducted by women in Iran today, to follow in the footsteps of Azar Nafisi. Where before Nafisi's secret club was reading "The Great Gatsby" and other Western Literatures, the women in Iran have now moved on to talking about Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir of Books.