In Reading Lolita in Tehran, narrator and author Azar Nafisi chooses to study the controversial novel Lolita in her women's study group because the main character's life mirrors the oppression that she and the other women feel. As occupants of post-revolutionary Iran, Nafisi and her former students face the oppression of a restrictive Islamic regime. They are forced to cover themselves and threatened if they do not conform to the regime's ideals of what...
In Reading Lolita in Tehran, narrator and author Azar Nafisi chooses to study the controversial novel Lolita in her women's study group because the main character's life mirrors the oppression that she and the other women feel. As occupants of post-revolutionary Iran, Nafisi and her former students face the oppression of a restrictive Islamic regime. They are forced to cover themselves and threatened if they do not conform to the regime's ideals of what a woman should be and do. Similarly, Lolita is a young girl who is defined by her relationship to a much older man. At one point, Nafisi says that "not only her life but also her life story is taken from her," in reference to Lolita. She sees this as a parallel to the freedom that was taken from Iranian women, and the act of joining together to read forbidden books is a way to avoid falling victim to oppression a second time. The imbalance of power in the dynamic between Humbert and Lolita mirrors the dynamic between the women in the group and the men around them. If this dynamic is not present in their own marriages and families, it is present in greater society.
Lolita is only one of the many books that were forbidden in the new Iranian regime. Despite the risk, Nafisi and the others feel that it is important to carve out their own spaces of freedom where they can. In this sense, reading Lolita is an act of rebellion. Most of the women have a copied version from the book because it has been banned by the government. Nasifi notes that the women in her study group also have "fragility and courage" in common, both of which are qualities that can be seen peeking through Lolita's character even through Humbert's biased lens.
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