2011 new Lolita appears!
Not too long ago my studying with the memoir, Studying Lolita in Tehran has opened my eyes for the meaning of those headlines. The author, Azar Nafisi paints a painfully lovely portrait of her life as an English Literature professor struggling to teach a topic that is contrary for the oppressive theocratic rule with the government in energy. Her teachings with the literary works of James and Fitzgerald and Nabokov quietly defy the Islamic Republic and their fundamentalist beliefs with characters of independent thought and individualism; a stark contrast for the image of the best Muslim, an ideal which Nafisi and her secret students come to describe as “irrelevant”. Studying her memoir has aroused my interest to find out much more of what lies behind the headlines.
In the event you peer in to the past you’ll see that these headlines are just a continual reincarnation from decades past. Given that as early since the sixties the controversy continues to be boiling in two pots; Moujahedin’s modernism along with the totalitarian, anti-American ideologies of Khomeini. The intrinsic difference behind the two ideologies is democracy and human rights.
Reading Azar Nafisi’s memoir altered my perception of Iran. How Azar Nafisi remained passionate about literature prior to her expulsion was my 1st step to understanding the unrest in Iran. Imprinted on my mind will be the tornado atmosphere that Nafisi managed to dodge for so extended. She seemed to climate the storm as much as this point by standing in the calm-eye with the storm, a calm which she produced by immersing herself and her college students in the fantasy planet of Lolita, the honest globe of the Excellent Gatsby and the passionate globe of Daisy Miller. Every one of the whilst, fundamentalist banners were being hung all more than the walls from the university, protests had been resonating from outside the classroom windows and also the worst image, a student who set fire to himself operating by way of the halls. Our most humble respect ought to go to Azar Nafisi for persisting to educate Western literature in such a convulsive climate in which the leadership regarded as those teachings to be “of the devil”. Nafisi held on longer than any other self-respecting free of charge particular person could expect.
The message I take home from that is certainly the attribute of empathy. All of the books Nafisi research with her college students have one particular thing in typical. The characters are all flawed. There’s no clear hero or perhaps a clear villain. Their portraits are in watercolor, blurring the hero along with the villain. You have empathy for the two. Zarrin, Nafisi’s student cosplay costumes, soon after quite ably defending Gatsby within the mock trial stated to Nafisi: “This is an incredible book. It teaches you to value your dreams but to become wary of them also, to seek out integrity in unusual places.” Zarrin has no sense to act immorally after reading the book. Instead she sees by means of the characters eyes and learns from their flaws. And reading these books beneath the context of a revolutionary Iran appears to awaken Nafisi’s students to the simple fact that morality cannot be forced upon folks. These books do not have some mystical power to entrance someone into acting out evil as the revolutionaries claim. I’m convinced that the purpose why these books strike such a chord together with the reader is since from the characters freedom to pick. Ideals and religious laws usually are not points that may be forced upon an individual simply because the truth is they’re going to never ever be accepted, just as with Humbert or the blind censor. It’s ironic in fact that these books are thought to be by the Khomeini supporters to become effective adequate to force the ideals of its characters around the reader. Ironic simply because that is certainly specifically what the revolutionaries are performing, enforcing “morality” on its subjects with its Revolutionary Guards. It is in correct narcissistic kind, accusing your enemy of what you will be guilty of. However the person cannot be fooled.
There’s a majority that does not agree with absolute theocratic rule. Right now their anti-government protests play out on the streets of Iran. One of the most active opposing anti-government group Moujahedin, seek democracy, human rights, liberty and grace and compassion versus violence and vengeance; a stark contrast towards the oppressive and absolute theocratic rule in spot now. We can study the outcome of their efforts inside the declaration in the National Council of Resistance of Iran.
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