Reading Lolita in Tehran, by Azar Nafisi

• On her first day teaching at the University of Tehran, Azar Nafisi began class with the questions: “why should anyone read at all?” and “what should fiction accomplish?” What are your answers?  

• Compare attitudes to the veil held by men, women and the government in the Islamic Republic of Iran.  Look at the examples of Mahshid’s feelings as a Muslim and Nafisi’s grandmother (p.192). 

• In discussing the story of A THOUSAND AND ONE NIGHTS, Nafisi mentions 3 types of women who fell victim to the king’s “unreasonable rule” (p.19). Do they reflect Nafisi’s students in her private class? 

• What do you think Nafisi means when she says she is “irrelevant” in the Islamic Republic of Iran. Do you agree? 

• Of the 7 women in Nafisi’s class (or her friends) which one in particular did you sympathize with most? Why? 

• In what ways are the characters Humbert (from Lolita), Gatsby and Daisy Miller related to the Islam Republic and/or the Ayatollah? Are they well chosen from the many characters Nafisis could have chosen? 

• The book had both positive and negative critics. The positive critics said the book is a defence of “why books matter” but the negative critics said it was a book which supported US intervention policies. What do you think? 

• Nafisi writes “It was not until I reached home that I realised the true meaning of exile” (p145). How do her ideas of home conflict with her husband Bijan who is reluctant to leave Tehran? Also compare Mahshid’s feeling that she “owes” something to Tehran and belongs there to Mitra and Nassrin’s desires for freedom and escape.   

 Azar Nafisi Interview

How do you reconcile Nabokov's apolitical stance with the politics of "Reading Lolita in Tehran"?

• Nafisi says Nabokov was "sly"-who wouldn't he talk to?
• core values are assaulted
• Wearing the veil- how do you become subversive?
• Why did she choose apolitical writers?
• According to Nafisi, what is wrong with books with messages?