Drunkard's Walk Forums

Back of book description:

For two years before she left Iran in 1997, Azar Nafisi gathered seven young women at her house every Thursday morning to
read and discuss forbidden works of Western literature. They were all former students whom she had taught at university. Some came from conservative and
religious families, others were progressive and secular; several had spent time in jail. Shy and uncomfortable at first, they soon began to open up and speak
more freely, not only about the novels they were reading but also about themselves, their dreams and disappointments. Their stories intertwined with those they
were reading - "Pride and Prejudice", "Washington Square", "Daisy Miller" and "Lolita" - their Lolita, as they imagined
her in Tehran. Nafisi's account flashes back to the early days of the revolution when she first started teaching at the University of Tehran amid the swirl
of protests and demonstrations. In those frenetic days, the students took control of the university, expelled faculty members and purged the curriculum. Azar
Nafisi's luminous tale offers a portrait of the Iran-Iraq war viewed from Tehran and gives us a glimpse, from the inside, of women's lives in
revolutionary Iran.

Conclusion: "You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means."
---
"Oh, silver blade, forged in the depths of the beyond. Heed my summons and purge those who stand in my way. Lay
waste."