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Hey guys! I was hoping you could help me with something.
I have to write a 4000 word essay in the next couple of weeks and my teacher suggested the book 'Reading Lolita in Tehran'. I'm still reading the book but I'm finding difficulty in deciding what I should write about and what themes are present in this novel, other than the obvious of how women are treated in Tehran.
I would love to read some discussions and suggestions. It would be extremely helpful!
Thanks in advance.
I read this book a few years ago. It's not really a novel. Wasn't it a non-fictional account of how a female, westernized lecturer set up an English literature study group for some of her female students after being forced from her post at the university? I later read all the books they discussed: Lolita, Pride & Prejudice, Daisy Miller and The Great Gatsby. The author made post revolutionary Iran sound like a totalitarian hell hole run by religious, fundamentalist nutters. This was my impression of the place before that too, although I have several times heard most people there are friendly. It suppose it must have especially bad if you were a westernized woman. I've often wondered whether the place has relaxed at all since the book was written. Iran is a very conservative country, and I wondered what the students would make of a book like Lolita. I cannot really remember what they said about it. I think they thought it was a metaphor for what the ayatollas were doing to their country. In some ways, I suspected Iranian social values would have more in common with England and Italy of the 19th century rather than today's. It was a time when women were expected to be chaste. I was amused that the students liked Pride & Prejudice most, especially Mr Darcy. Why do all the women like Mr Darcy so much, even women from another age and culture thousands of miles away.
I found "Reading Lolita in Tehran" to be both inspiring and disturbing. It definitely made me more appreciative to the fact that I can read what ever I choose to with out my government breathing down my neck. The lenghts that the women (and some times man) go to in the name of literature is quite extraordinary. I've often though about what would happen if I were restricted from various writings and if I'd risk jail (or perhaps even worse in some cases) to defend my intellectualism. I also had my eyes opened in terms of not taking any thing for granted. I honestly felt a bit guilty with my abundance of riches (concerning literature) for quite some time after finishing the book.
Any way, I really enjoyed the book in question. It's very seldom that I reread any of the books that I own, however; I'm definitely going to read this book again.