"Reading Lolita In Tehran" by Azar Nafisi--Book Review

I have just completed reading the book "Reading Lolita in Tehran" by Azar Nafisi and I have never been more pleased with a book in  my life.  This memoir is a masterpiece which explains why it was on the New York Times Bestseller List for more than 100 weeks after its release in 2003.  I never read a book because it is or was a best seller.  I read books because I want to and when I want to.  I am very glad I never read this book when it was a best seller.  Today is the time when every American should be reading this wonderful book.  It is a memoir about life in Tehran in the years immediately after the Iranian Revolution and written by Azar Nafisi, a college professor at two major Iranian universities before she was forced to leave the country and now teaches at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.  The title comes from a secret reading group or class which Dr. Nafisi set up in her home with a small group of her hand selected female students after she was expelled from her teaching position in Tehran.  She set up the group in order to continue teaching books which had been or were about to be banned in Iran and to continue contact with this small group of her best, most dedicated, and most liberal female students.  The book does an incredible job of documenting the increasing oppression of the revolutionary government against women, intellectuals, Americans, and non-Muslims.  Simultaneously, for the student of great literature, the book can serve as the reading list for a seminar on the development of the novel and of literature about women, especially about women in oppressive environments.   But it can and should also serve as a warning to every citizen of America about what is happening in Washington, DC, and in the soul of the United States of America as we suffer through this terrible time with the illegal occupation of the White House by an agent of Vladimir Putin and Russia; the steadily increasing oppression in America against immigrants, women, and liberals; the increasing unconstitutional pressure being brought to bear on our government by Right Wing Radical religious forces; and the wide ranging attacks on American Democracy by all these forces and the outside forces in Russia which control many of them.  

I have said for many years that in order for the Religious Right Wing Radicals in America to believe the things they say about religion and politics that they have had to go through all the identical psychological changes that the fundamentalist mullahs in Iran, Iraq, and Afghanistan went through.  Their supporters become incensed at this statement and spout stock phrases about how they are different from Muslims and they are "God's chosen people" which is exactly what the mullahs told Iranians, Iraqis, and Afghans.  First, in order for either group to believe the things they claim they do, they have to believe they have a direct line to God, that they understand God better than anyone else alive,  and that God is telling them what to do.  Secondly, they have to believe that God is also telling them to tell the rest of us what to do.  They all, both mullahs and "Christians", have to believe they are God's appointed emissaries on earth.  Personally, I believe that if God intended to take a long vacation and leave anyone else in charge of our hearts, minds, and souls, He/She/It would have told the rest of us in advance who was in charge.  The bottom line is that in Iran, Iraq, and Afghanistan, the mullahs are fake imams, fake mullahs, and fake Muslims; and in the United States of America, these self-described "Christians" are fake preachers, fake leaders, and fake Christians.  In fact, they are Hypochristians and guilty of everything that compound word describes.  

Now, let's get back to "Reading Lolita in Tehran" and how this all ties in with what is happening in America. This book does an incredible job of explaining on a personal level what happened as the radical Muslims in Iran gradually, step by step took over the lives of every citizen of Iran.  It is also an incredible signpost about what the Hypochristians, Right Wing Radical Repugnicans, and agents of Russia are doing in America.  The parallels are stunning and this book should serve as a warning toward anyone who is not already fighting tooth and nail to put an end to the Right Wing Radical Russian Owned Criminal Syndicate which is illegally occupying the White House after committing TREASON with Russia in order to steal an American election.  It describes step by step how more and more oppressive changes were foisted on the people of Iran in the name of God.  In America, the steps being taken are very similar.  We are now seeing children dying in chain link cages on American soil and being killed in the name of America.  We are seeing incredibly oppressive laws being passed to control, abuse, and nullify women, liberals, Democrats, and anyone else who opposes the criminals who support the TREASON.  There is no difference between the illegal occupiers of the White House and the Iranian mullahs in all their black, shriveled, little souls.  

This book also has a wonderfully insightful discussion of most of the works Azar Nafisi and her group of Iranian women, some of who spent years in prison during the time period of the book, read during their life as a class or book group.  Dr. Nafisi's understanding of literature is tremendous and she provides a lengthy reading list at the end of the book.  But there is also a much more lengthy reading list scattered throughout the pages of this book with the mention of dozens of other important and educational works of literature which Nafisi used to educate the women in her class.  Each of us would be well served to devote ourselves to reading and understanding every book mentioned in this incredible memoir.  We would all be far better people and citizens of the world if we did so.  We would reach the end of that long literary quest with a far better understanding of both politics and literature, both Iran and America, both Democracy and the enemies who wish to destroy it.