Azar Nafisi

outcasts because they are different, and some never grow accustomed to America with its society and culture. Two authors, Gary Shteyngart and Azar Nafisi, were both immigrants who came into the United States yet had very different experiences and feelings about America once there. Gary Shteyngart has lived in America since he was fourteen so he was used to American culture. In his essay he writes about a vacation he went on to Miami with his family;he was extremely embarrassed the entire time because of how “un-American” his family acted. As Azar Nafisi says in her essay, she lived in the United States, eleven years and five months, but wasn’t able to become a citizen until then. Unlike Shteyngart, who had a poor attitude about his experiences, Nafisi was very…

Azar Nafisi and Maggie Nelson both address the issue of the ideology of art in their respective works, Reading Lolita in Tehran, and “Great to Watch.” Nafisi’s work focuses on whether or not one can use art as an escape to an imaginary world of their own ideologies. Nelson tries to show how art can let everyone have their own thoughts and ideas, without the presence of bias from the media. Ideology is best defined as an interconnected system of ideas, and both Nafisi and Nelson’s works…

one of the few things that have remained the same over the course of thousands of years is the fear of the unknown. It is natural for living species to distress over what we have no knowledge about because it could very much be a threat to our safety. This concept is demonstrated socially via ostracizing, humans separate others that are not similar to them because they feel outside of their comfort zone if they do so. Fearing what we do not know is the stem to so many social issues and forms of…

Although Karen Ho, Cathy Davidson, and Azar Nafisi all talk about different societies, the amount of hegemony is directly proportionate to the amount of transgressors. Davidson focuses mainly on the society of children going to school in the United States, Ho speaks for the people who go to Ivy Leagues, and Nafisi 's society is that of the Islamic Republic. While the first two seem more closely related, it is interesting to see how the effects of control being imposed on students at such a young…

In Azar Nafisi 's “Reading Lolita in Tehran”, Nafisi describes how she and her students in Iran were able to to customize an author’s preserved constructed space into a way where they can find relate it back towards their own lives. Regardless of the setting of where each essay takes place, these two essay share a common theme about how people find success after being exposed to a constructed space. People find success in constructed spaces that are made to be open-ended where such space is not…

Oliver Sacks’ text, “The Mind’s Eye”, and Azar Nafisi’s “Reading Lolita in Tehran” some insight is provided on this situation. What we make…

(reasonably) unrestricted scope to utilize their iPods in aiding their education. As a result, students collaborated developed so many ingenious ways to use the iPod – much more than what was expected. At the same time, the interconnected nature of the internet also allowed students to expand the scope of their learning and knowledge through a new medium of transferring information. In Nafisi’s piece, her isolated classroom helped foster a more introspective, yet worldly style of learning…

In 1995, Azar Nafisi created a safe-haven for reading literature with seven of her best female students. Prior to the Iranian Revolution, the male dominant Iranian government required every female to wear the traditional Muslim robe and headscarf. It was in the privacy of Nafisi’s home where these girls traded their traditional clothing for bright colored garments and literary discussions. By sheading their required dress, Nafisi and her students defied the totalitarian rules of the Islamic…

process independent to each individual. Individuals have little control over the process of being labeled and defined by others in ways that sometimes do not reflect their inner self. However, through identification, individuals are able to decide which and to what degree identities apply to them. In other words, identification is not about fitting in to a label, but making the label fit into the individual’s perception of their self. In “Reading Lolita in Tehran,” Azar Nafisi and her students…

and justify Wall Street’s domination of corporate America”(182). Attracting elite students to work inside is an important part for Wall Street to accomplish the goal that dominants the corporations in the America. They always promote the idea to the public that other companies are “less smart and less efficient”. Through their continuously self-promotion, individuals gradually accept the idea that Wall Street is one of the best places for people to work as a increasing number of students want to…