"'Lolita' Unveiled: Muslim Women's Take on a Scandalous Classic" is a dramatic radio essay that explores the impact of Azar Nafisi's best selling memoir, "Reading Lolita in Tehran," on our thinking about the precarious nature of democracy in the Middle East and here in the United States.
The news is filled with major stories about Iran: the purging of reformist candidates from national elections have ensured a hard line Parliament, in spite of the efforts of the winner of the Nobel Peace prize for 2003 Shirin Ebadi to argue for democratic process. Meanwhile, Azar Nafisi's memoir, Reading Lolita in Tehran, remains at the top of the New York Times best seller list where it has been described as " an eloquent brief on the transformative power of fiction." This piece examines the power of the novel to inspire democratic reasoning through free imaginings and also about the power of radical readings of novels to do the same. The listener learns about Dr. Nafisi's private classes in Tehran where veiled Muslim women met in secret and read and discussed Vladimir Nabokov's western novel, Lolita, finding it central to their abilities to imagine themselves as free agents. Included are author Azar Nafisi, Yassi ( one of Nafisi's Iranian graduate students), professional readings from the memoir, clips from Jeremy Iron's reading of Nabokov's Lolita and musical passages from contemporary Iranian singer Sussan Deyhim,
More from Laura Jackson
Reclaiming Islam: A Woman's Perspective
(00:17:40)
From: Laura Jackson
Muslim scholar Leila Ahmed argues for an alternative to fundamentalist Islam, for an oral, ethical tradition, passed down from mothers and grandmothers, that still lives ...
Crossing the River Lethe
(00:04:22)
From: Laura Jackson
Coming to terms with my aging mother's dementia.
9/11 Rewrite: Memoir in a Time of Violence
(00:14:30)
From: Laura Jackson
"What does it mean to fashion a self in the midst of a violent world"?
Related Pieces
Piece Description
"'Lolita' Unveiled: Muslim Women's Take on a Scandalous Classic" is a dramatic radio essay that explores the impact of Azar Nafisi's best selling memoir, "Reading Lolita in Tehran," on our thinking about the precarious nature of democracy in the Middle East and here in the United States. The news is filled with major stories about Iran: the purging of reformist candidates from national elections have ensured a hard line Parliament, in spite of the efforts of the winner of the Nobel Peace prize for 2003 Shirin Ebadi to argue for democratic process. Meanwhile, Azar Nafisi's memoir, Reading Lolita in Tehran, remains at the top of the New York Times best seller list where it has been described as " an eloquent brief on the transformative power of fiction." This piece examines the power of the novel to inspire democratic reasoning through free imaginings and also about the power of radical readings of novels to do the same. The listener learns about Dr. Nafisi's private classes in Tehran where veiled Muslim women met in secret and read and discussed Vladimir Nabokov's western novel, Lolita, finding it central to their abilities to imagine themselves as free agents. Included are author Azar Nafisi, Yassi ( one of Nafisi's Iranian graduate students), professional readings from the memoir, clips from Jeremy Iron's reading of Nabokov's Lolita and musical passages from contemporary Iranian singer Sussan Deyhim,
2 Comments
|
Review of The Power of the Novel: Reading Lolita in Tehran“The Power of the Novel” is a celebration of reading, an homage to the healing, redemptive power of literature. But what makes this story so moving is the sad, surprising analogy made between the little girl Lolita and the women of Tehran. The women in the story, who meet in secret to read the bizarre, disturbing, and beautiful Nabakov classic, see themselves as victims of a man’s monstrous dream—The Ayatollah—just as Lolita is a victim of Humbert’s monstrous dream. Reading helps the women escape their lives and to re-imagine themselves. Fiction, discussed in this context, reminds you of its great subversive power. And bonus: Jeremy Iron’s reading of the text is fantastic. This piece could go into a show that deals with education, the Middle East, the treatment of women, or reading. Really, it could go anywhere; it’s interesting enough. |
Transcript
NARRATION:
In 1979 Azar Nafisi completed her doctorate in English literature at the University of Oklahoma and returned to her native Iran to teach. This was the same year that the Ayatollah Khomeini led a religious revolution in Iran, imposing an Islamic Fundamentalist regime on his people. For the next 16 years, Professor Nafisi taught literature at various Iranian universities, simultaneously enduring and resisting the repressive educational system that segregated men and women in classes, censored curriculum, and punished disobedient professors.
Yassi, a student in one of Nafisi?s classes describes how each day, before she was allowed to enter the university campus, officials checked the length of her robe, the thickness of her scarf, her face for any traces of make-up, and even the contents of her purse. If even a single strand of hair was showing from beneath her scarf, she c...
Read the full transcript
Timing and Cues
10 seconds of music
piece begins - runs 21:30
closing music 50 seconds with fade
Musical Works
Majoun: David Horowitz and Sussan Dayhem. Sony International. 2003
6 segments.
Of 5 purchasers of this piece...
- 3 also bought:
How to Sing the Star-Spangled Banner (00:01:32) - 3 also bought:
The Hula Lesson (00:57:26) - 3 also bought:
- 3 also bought:Thanksgiving story (00:05:51)
- 3 also bought:
Memorial (00:05:51)
Johnny Ramirez-Johnson
Posted on January 23, 2005 at 05:20 PM | Permalink
Review of Lolita Unveiled: Muslim Women's Take on a Scandalous Classic
I really liked the engaging usage of literature as a tool for liberation. This piece will, without directly saying so, help Americans with stricter views of Christianity view their own religiosity from the Iranian female experiences. Another contribution of this piece is the refreshing contemplation of male-female control and how to subvert it in a positive way even in the midst of a regime as coercive as the ayatollahs Iran. I remember when I was in college my female classmates had to pass the ruler test for the length of their skirts before leaving the female dorm. This piece made me, one more time, see the ayatollah that lives in me, in my history, a demon I am constantly exorcising. I loved the musical pieces that were at the introduction and at the end, they grabbed my soul.