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Nazanin Gohari

Hairdresser-turned-activist helps girls and women help themselves in impoverished Tehran district

Borzou Daragahi, reporting from Tehran, LA Times (November 14, 2008 ) -- In her eyes, they are all daughters and sisters. The waifish 18-year-old, already married and a mother, but with a hunger to learn. The pair of shy high school students, nervous at first, but soon browsing eagerly through the bookshelves. The matronly homemaker, unsure and uneducated, but discovering the world beyond the slums of southern Tehran by reading Feodor Dostoevski and Jean-Paul Sartre. For the women in her neighborhood, Nazanin Gohari has become a savior of minds  >>>

14-Nov-2008
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I Have a Crush on Alex Trebek

new publication of Reading Lolita

by I Have a Crush on Alex Trebek on

Readint Lolita in Tehran has been republished with fancy new style pages. Random House loves re-marketing this book. If you are a collector, you should get a copy! It's still paperback of course.


I Have a Crush on Alex Trebek

Sorry Azarin I wasn't clear from the start about this

by I Have a Crush on Alex Trebek on

I don't have a problem with Iranians reading RLT. I guess it's the American readers I worry about. 

I think Americans 1. don't think of Iran in any other terms except IRI. That's not fair. Yes IRI is bad and they should know, but I don't like to see IRI define Iran in America and elsewhere. Her book makes it seem like there is no literary culture or embrace for such a culture.

Of course, YOU Azarin from Iran knows differently, it goes without saying for you. You know about our poets and prose writers.

For an iranian, like you or me, who has background knowledge about Iran, that weak, desolate landscape doesn't emerge. But I have met students who have read the book and said "your country is pitiful. i pity your home land. I hope it changes." I don't like books that do that to people, especially foreign audiences who might not read about Iran again.

I'm glad we discussed this. Proof that personal insults are a waste of time! Thanks Azarin! 


Azarin Sadegh

Thanks Crush for your civilized tone!

by Azarin Sadegh on

First of all, I have to thank you for softening the tone of your comment. It is much more civilized and even if it’s long, it still reads well!

Second, I apologize if in my previous comments, you felt a hint of personal attack. But I have to say what you felt was mostly my own frustration! Yes! I am frustrated because each time a new book is out, or there’s any other literary event/news, the name of Azar Nafisi comes up to be ridiculed and criticized unfairly, even if the new book or the news has nothing to do with her. It doesn’t mean that I think that Nafisi’s book is flawless! It definitely has its own set of problems (not mentioned in your comment), but it’s unrelated to this blog.

Plus, I have attended her seminar at UCLA a few months ago. She spoke intelligently and made me feel so proud, as she talked about her deep love for our poetry and literature and expressed her opposition to war with Iran and the bombing of it.  

You've mentioned that her book doesn't help to understand Iran and Iranian culture. To respond to you, actually, I wouldn’t classify the description of her conflicts with the University, or her specific memories of the treatment of women/her students by the new Islamic government as the generalization of Iranian “culture” or society. After all, I didn’t expect her at all to analyze the whole Iranian society, like in a book of sociology. I took it just for what it is: a memoir! Now if her book is the only book that some Americans are going to read about Iran, I agree and understand your point, but it is not Nafisi's fault or even her problem!

I think there are writers who try to be the voice of a whole society, but I've never seen them to be fully successful. I think a writer's responsibility should be toward her own truth.

You cannot write (a memoir) without sincerity. If the Iranian society she lived back then, during the war and the rise of Islamists, felt dark and dead and bleak to her, (I’m sure Nafisi wasn’t the only one feeling this way. Many of us felt the same during those years. But even if she was the only one,) she has all the rights to talk and to write about whatever she remembers as long as she is honest and truthful (just because it is a memoir! In fiction a writer can lie as much as he/she can and it’s still ok as long as it is well-written!!)

I think it’s Joan Didion who doubts about the reliability of memory and its link to reality. She describes the best what I’m trying to say (so poorly)! There is a kind of remoteness between the reality and our memory of this reality. What is the truth after all?

What Azar Nafisi remembers from the years of war in Iran and the kind of deception that pushed her to leave her home again is unique to her. It’s her story, almost like a private wound.

Sorry for my long comment…I hope you would get to the end too!

Thanks, Azarin 


I Have a Crush on Alex Trebek

Azarin aziz Why are you attacking me? She wrote a book, not me

by I Have a Crush on Alex Trebek on

I'm criticizing her book. It wasn't a passage the beginning. Why are you making this about me me marge marge. A text like Nafisi's is bad because people who are suspicious of Iran, especially given the date of it's publication, will read it and see Iran's landscape as desolate, tragic, dead, and bleak. As you said, that is HER memory of it, but given its publication, it doesn't help people understand Iran today. Also, her opinion, given her new brand as all knowing Iranian expert, is more open to criticism in my opinion. Given that some people read it as required texts for school, and that it might be the only text they read about Iran, it's worrisome!

My dispute with her rests in what she said about Iranian culture in general, not IRI. I hate IRI I do. I know you need me to say that so that you can be sure I'm not a closetted IRI supporter. But why does that matter? Her publisher read the book and understood full well the subtext of what she was saying to a mass market. What bugs me is that now, whenever someone takes it upon himself or herself, but mostly herself, to read a book, she must have been divinely inspired by the Messiah Azar Nafisi. It's not so. Women in Iran have always read, on top of a million other things we always did. That's my only dispute and it's only with the author. I haven't attacked her personally or called her jealous or stupid or anything like that.  

when i posture her book up against other stuff she has said in public, it's disturbing. not because I love IRI, but because I don't think she is an IRI expert because she faced adversaries in the university system in Iran. I'm glad she exposed her students to those texts and it's great, but the generalizations she makes thereafter, those are what worry me. 

Of course I didn't say that Nafisi wrote that people in Iran never read before her, but what she makes it sound like to her readers is that the culture does not approve of it or encourage reading. Place that along side the pasage when she says 12 year old girls looked ripe for marriage. It's just not a good way to show Iran. YES Iranian society is very messed up, but I don't think Nafisi demonstrated that. You see it differently, and you're entitled to. I never said you shouldn't, or attacked you for your view.

Instead, I stuck to Nafisi, unlike you. I never accused you of anything either.

What she wrote is that Iranian culture denies merit to literary works. I also don't like the gap between when the book was published and when Nafisi left Iran. The interest in Iran made her publisher attracted to her work, and that would be fine, if it didn't make Iranian society look so lacking and weak, given that the debate around Iran is to bomb or not to bomb. 

Now the one thing that I do agree with Nafisi on - religion is no good period. I'm not big on religion - catholic, muslim, zoroastrian, christian - it's all fake to me. But given that a lot of people in Iran are muslim, not fanatically, given that there is a war on terror with a region that is mostly Muslim inhabited, that's also worrisome. The balance in the book is missing, and that's my problem with it. The end. I applaud you if you read all this.  Thank you.


Azarin Sadegh

to Crush

by Azarin Sadegh on

I assume that you stopped at first pages when she's talking about our culture that under Mullah's rules didn't find any merit in literary work...unless it contains some ideology, etc. :-)

You cannot take a sentence out of its context to attack the whole book.

Of course I agree with you that you have the right to like, or hate her book and you have the right to stop or keep reading it and then criticize as much as you want... But please don't invent things! Azar Nafisi never pretended that it is because of her work that people in Iran read books...are you trying to be funny?

By doing this type of misrepresentation, you risk to be dismissed yourself as someone literary or unbiased.

Azarin


I Have a Crush on Alex Trebek

Azarin, you haven't read it either haha!

by I Have a Crush on Alex Trebek on

Until you quote some passages, I don't think you've ever read it. 

Haha! I read this book when it first came out 5 years ago. The part that stuck out to me the most, the part that I was offended by and has stayed with me is when she wrote "Iranians are not a literary culture." Sure, she can get away with that with an average American reader, but not with someone who is Iranian.

In fact, as an Iranian and appreciator of Iranian writers (not all), I think she insulted lots of people, writers and artists.

Just because it is a memoir means that we can't criticize her for making a generalization about Iranian culture? What are you talking about Azarin? 

But hey, there'll always be people like you who attack me instead. Good job Azarin!  


Azarin Sadegh

This blog was supposed to be about Nazanin G.

by Azarin Sadegh on

I agree with goldust that this blog was supposed to be about Nazanin G.'s wonderful accomplishment! But I guess “some people”'s obsession with Azar Nafisi has made it about Azar Nafisi...

Dear News G.,

I think you've forgotten one important fact. Azar Nafisi's RLIT is a memoir. It means that it is about her memories, her perception, her life. Not yours, not mine, not what the whole Iranian community expects from her. Plus, She is not a politician, so she is not being chosen as the sole representative of the whole country.

About the media using her and her memoir: I have seen many of her TV interviews and her speeches and I find her to be fair and truthful. But I understand that sometimes she has no control over the result (on how her words have been cut and re-edited...and then used)! You should know better about "American journalism" and their ethics!

Writing (especially a memoir) is a very personal act and the writer writes to let go of whatever is haunting him/her. In this sense writing is selfish and egoistic, but you – as a reader – have the choice to like it or not. It really doesn’t matter as he/she doesn’t write to please the readers. The only one to please is himself/herself... So  if you don't have the same kind of memories as she does, why not writing your own?

I like Nafisi’s RLIT not only because of my deep love for literature or because it is so well written, but especially because I do share many of her memories of that period and from the Iran and Iranians I knew. (Actually, if I had to write a memoir, mine could be even more hated by the whole Iranian community in denial!)

Thanks!

to Crush (the yellow woman with blue hair): You haven't convinced me yet that you have actually read RLIT... But considering the comments you kept adding, you might need to read other kind of books; Methods of relaxation or Anger management techniques for example. :-) Life is too short to waste it on being so neurotic!


I Have a Crush on Alex Trebek

WHAT? So now if someone reads a book, it's because of Nafisi?

by I Have a Crush on Alex Trebek on

What the hell people? what the HELL? Just curious if everyone would say the same if Nazanin was a Navid. Women read, ok? Women like to read and it's not just because of Nafisi.

Reading books in Iran was not invented by Nafisi! Just because this woman is reading in Iran, we don't have to attribute it to Nafisi and her dumb book! Jesus Christ! we are very badbakht indeed 


gol-dust

This is so ridicules! Nazanin Gohari became Nafisi!

by gol-dust on

How you guys changed the subject from the topic of the story to someone else! I guess, some of us can only breath through criticism, not compliment! This is what happens when you have a comfortable life! Just argue without any action. I never heard any of you saying things like, we should send her money or books so she continue her great work! Whatever happened to Good Thoughts, Words and Deeds? Shame on us!


News Goffer

Dear Azarin and Darius

by News Goffer on

I read her book. I attended a speech by her. I have read reviews of her books. Would it surprise you if I told you I read her book in Tehran?!

I have lost a lot of my earlier respect for Ms. Nafisi, not because her books isn't good or she isn't a good public speaker. She has lost my respect because whether she knew it or not, she has been instrumental in the general dehumanization and demonization of Iran and Iranians for the past several years, a very important pre-requisite for an attack on Iran, something many worked tirelessly to get done these past few years. I see her among a group of other Iranian intellectuals who have unfortunately betrayed Iranians by helping to portray a savage picture of them. It is so much easier to attack a bunch of cockroaches, illiterates, terrorists, and faceless, nameless people, don't you think? I'm afraid whether she knew it or not, Ms. Nafisi has helped those who wanted to attack Iran and whether that attack takes place or not, a darker, nastier picture of Iranian people has emerged which will take a long time for other, more responsible Iranian authors and thinkers to repair.

Did you see this clip which was featured on the site last month? Watch Azar Nafisi serve as the authority on everything, including plastic surgery in Iran and read what people said on that thread, and judge for yourselves. I find her appearance on that program pathetic and degrading to herself and to Iranian women. Is this what she set out to do? //iranian.com/main/singlepage/2008/cosmet...


I Have a Crush on Alex Trebek

Hi Azarin. You can address me directly you know

by I Have a Crush on Alex Trebek on

I have read her book and what I said is true. People read in Iran. We're a literary culture and we had Shakespeare before he knew how to poop. I'm offended at how she constructed Iranian society in her book and I understand that she had to do it that way to sell her book. But that doesn't make her immune to criticism. 

It's nice to see that anyone who has a problem with that is a prozac patient or Islamist. You guys who attack people with those lines ought to be ashamed at how you attack others while being narrow minded. You like her and her book, FINE, but don't attack me for not agreeing.

 


I Have a Crush on Alex Trebek

Personal Personal Personal! You monarchists love to attack

by I Have a Crush on Alex Trebek on

You are very sensitive and you can take it out on me. But I stand by what I said. What Azar Nafisi wrote in her book about Iran was offensive to me. Iranians read before her, and they read after her NOT due to her and her book. I don't have a problem with her sharing a story about her life in Iran, but she did what she had to in order to sell books and make Iran look destitute and savage without her.


Azarin Sadegh

Well said Darius!

by Azarin Sadegh on

I second you!

 I love Azar Nafisi's work and I admire Mrs. Gohari's efforts...I think it is ironic that most of the people who criticize Azar Nafisi have rarely even read her book...

Vive la literature! Azarin


Darius Kadivar

So why do they envy her success ?

by Darius Kadivar on

I haven't understood any of the points made against her by her so called critics. They are jealous otherwise they would simply write their own books rather than feed on her success with titles like : Reading more than Lolita in Tehran.

Even Dabashi thinks he invented Orientalism before Edward Said.

Come on this IS Jealousy and nothing else. They are the same people who critisize Satrapi for her success. Its cheap and low and they take readers for idiots incapable of making their own minds.

Take care MArge, you have been very pro active lately make sure to take your prosac ;0)

HAve a nice weekend,

D

 

 


I Have a Crush on Alex Trebek

How mature Darius. It's just jealousy.... yea ok sure whatever

by I Have a Crush on Alex Trebek on

Azar Nafisi did not set an example for people. The literary tradition has existed LONG BEFORE HER. That is the problem her critics have with her.


Darius Kadivar

Wonderful

by Darius Kadivar on

More power to such great ladies. Well Mrs. Nafisi's example has inspired people to do the same. All the Best to this lady and her readership.

Never understood the silly critics toward Mrs. Azar Nafisi from the nitwit ANTELLECTUALS of the likes of Hamid Dabashi who are simply jealous.

VIVE LA LITTERATURE


I Have a Crush on Alex Trebek

Reading more than Lolita in Tehran?!

by I Have a Crush on Alex Trebek on

Eat your heart out Azar Nafisi.