Reading Lolita in Tehran, by Azar Nafisi

This rather provocative title is actually perfectly accurate. The author is a professor of literature who has written a book on Nabokov and ran a book club for her female students who wanted to read classic novels banned in Iran in the 1990s. It is difficult to understand the seemingly blind complicity of Iran’s population with the totalitarian takeover of their country by a radical Islamic regime. Nafisi’s memoir explains how relatively easy it was to divide and conquer in a classic case of, “if you tolerate this, then your children will be next.” Non-religious opponents of the Shah, leftists and moderate Islamists found themselves sidelined, demonised and persecuted as the Ayatollahs gained strength. Women had it the worst as their country was taken back to the dark ages and they had to conform or leave if they didn’t want to die. In this the book holds useful lessons for today, with neo-fascists employing similar tactics, in various parts of the world,to divide and conquer their opponents. As much a book of literary criticism as a memoir, it is most interesting when it draws parallels between heroines of literature and the author’s students who resist the regime. Apart from encouraging these students by starting the forbidden book club Nafisi retreated from the regime rather than defying it; probably a sensible choice given the potential consequences. She was fortunate enough to have the means to eventually escape to the US after persuading her husband to waive his privilege. Most of her students eventually followed her lead in leaving Iran. This book was published in 2003, when the Islamic Republic had started to ease up, although life was still restricted and dangerous for its opponents. It would be interesting to read a more recent analysis of the state of affairs and the impact of a loss of generation of writers and artists on culture and society.