Reading *Reading Lolita in Tehran* in US 2020

It’s been on our bookshelf since 2003 when Azar Nafisi’s Reading Lolita in Tehran was top of the best-seller lists.  In that time, in the wake of 911, notwithstanding my distress over the George W. Bush administration, it might have meant something different to me than it does now.

I took it up a few weeks ago when we were in brinksmanship with Iran.  As a memoir, written in essay form, I’ve consumed it chunk by chunk since then, resting in between essays with lighter fare.

In this time, with Trump escaping real consequences for his impeachable behavior in the midst of a turbulent Democratic primary, the book provides a chilling inside view to the rise of an authoritarian regime.

The Handmaid’s Tale (Netflix version) might have studied this book or reports from inside repressive anti-female regimes to describe how the control crept up on them.  Way too much of it seems familiar to what we’re experiencing now.  A demagogue takes power democratically at first backed by an angry mob fueled by religious dogma.  Then they start to take control of the courts, the legislature and all avenues to power. 

Meanwhile, protests take place and an angry revolutionary student movement arises.  Many normal middle class people and professionals are sympathetic with the students but frightened by their fervor as well and fail to join them, opting instead to hope and believe that democracy will prevail.  It doesn’t and soon the new regime has manufactured a war with Iraq to justify martial law and suspend constitutional protections.  It declares itself the Islamic Republic of Iran.  Now that its too late, regular people like academic Nafisi wish they had paid more attention, had backed the students, had understood that a total loss of freedom was at stake.

Professor Azar Nafisi now of Georgetown University

Eventually her inability to have any kind of freedom of expression as an English literature professor (where English literature is considered an epitome of “western decadence” and female professionals are “whores”) drives her to teach a secret year long book study in her home with select female students, reading the likes of Lolita in Tehran.

The book provides a stark reminder of what is at stake in this election and how it important it is to address the conditions that drove Trump to power.