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Azar Nafisi

Azar Nafisi Quotes

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Azar Nafisi is an Iranian-born American writer and scholar, renowned for her experiences during the Islamic Revolution in Iran and her work 'Reading Lolita in Tehran'. She taught English literature at the University of Tehran and was forced to leave Iran after the revolution. Nafisi later moved to the United States and earned a Ph.D. from Georgetown University.

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All Tehran Empathy Reality Iran People Imagination Ifs Literature Past Way

Famous Azar Nafisi Quotes

“I believe that it is only through empathy, that the pain experienced by an Algerian woman, a North Korean dissident, a Rwandan child or an Iraqi prisoner, becomes real to me and not just passing news. And it is at times like this when I ask myself, am I prepared - like Huck Finn - to give up Sunday school heaven for the kind of hell that Huck chose?”

“You need imagination in order to imagine a future that doesn't exist.”

Needs Order Imagination Imagine

Author:Azar Nafisi

“Living in the Islamic Republic is like having sex with someone you loathe.”

Sex Islamic Republic Loathe Having Sex

Book:Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books

Source: Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books

“A bad author can take the most moral issue and make you want to just never, ever think about that moral issue.”

Thinking Want Moral Issues Moral Issues

Author:Azar Nafisi

“America was based on a poetic vision. What will happen when it loses its poetry?”

Happens America Loses Vision Poetic Poetic License

Author:Azar Nafisi

“Every culture has something to be ashamed of, but every culture also has the right to change, to challenge negative traditions, and create to new ones.”

Culture Challenges Negative Tradition Ashamed

Author:Azar Nafisi

“For more than 30 years the Islamic regime and its apologists have tried to dismiss women's struggle in Iran as part of a western ploy.”

Years Struggle Western Islamic Iran Regimes Ploy

Author:Azar Nafisi

“I finally returned to Iran in 1979, when I got my degree in English and American literature, and stayed for 18 years in the Islamic republic.”

Years Literature Degrees Islamic Iran Republic American Literature

Author:Azar Nafisi

“I see people who talk about America, and then undermine it by not paying attention to its soul, to its poetry. I see polarization, reductionism and superficiality.”

People Soul America Attention Pay Attention Superficiality Polarization Reductionism

Author:Azar Nafisi

“I think Islam is in a sense, in crisis. It needs to question and re-question itself.”

Thinking Needs Crisis Islam

Author:Azar Nafisi

“I would like to say how much I resent people who say of the Islamic Republic that this is our culture - as if women like to be stoned to death, or as if they like to be married at the age of nine.”

People Ifs Age Culture Married Nine Islamic Republic Being Married Resent

Author:Azar Nafisi

“In the past 30 years, officials of the Iranian regime and its apologists have labeled criticism, especially with regard to women's rights, as anti-Islamic and pro-Western, justifying its brutalities by ascribing them to Islam and Iran's culture.”

Years Past Culture Rights Criticism Regard Islam Western Officials Islamic Iran Regimes Womens Rights Brutality Iranian

Author:Azar Nafisi

“After the rigged Iranian presidential elections in 2009, the Islamic regime attacked the 'humanities' as the main source of protests, the most effective tool used by the West, especially America, to corrupt and incite Iranian youth, and finally closed down all the Humanities departments in Iran's universities.”

America Used Humanity Youth Source Tools Election West University Presidential Islamic Department Protest Iran Regimes Iranian Presidential Election Rigged

Author:Azar Nafisi

“That, of course, is what great works of imagination do for us: They make us a little restless, destabilize us, question our preconceived notions and formulas.”

Littles Courses Imagination Notion Formulas Restless Great Work Preconceived Notions

Author:Azar Nafisi

“Art is no longer snobbish or cowardly. It teaches peasants to use tractors, gives lyrics to young soldiers, designs textiles for factory women's dresses, writes burlesque for factory theatres, does a hundred other useful tasks. Art is as usueful as bread.”

Giving Writing Doe Art Use Young Teach Design Quiet Art Is Hundred Tasks Dresses Soldier Theatre Bread Factories Peasants Cowardly Tractors Textiles Snobbish Burlesque

Author:Azar Nafisi

“My passion has always been books and literature, and teaching.”

Book Passion Literature Teaching My Passion

Author:Azar Nafisi

“I have a recurring fantasy that one more article has been added to the Bill of Rights: the right to free access to imagination.”

Has Beens Imagination Fantasy Rights Bills Access Articles Bill Of Rights Recurring

Book:Reading Lolita in Tehran

Source: Reading Lolita in Tehran

“The negative side of the American Dream comes when people pursue success at any cost, which in turn destroys the vision and the dream.”

People Dream Turns Sides Vision Cost Negative Pursue American Dream

Author:Azar Nafisi

“The crisis besetting America is not just an economic or political crisis; something deeper is wreaking havoc across the land, a mercenary and utilitarian attitude that demonstrates little empathy for people’s actual well-being, that dismisses imagination and thought, branding passion for knowledge as irrelevant.”

Source: The Republic of Imagination: America in Three Books

“What we search for in fiction is not so much reality, but the epiphany of truth.”

Reality Fiction Epiphany Tehran

Book:Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books

Source: Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books

“Every great work of art ... is a celebration, an act of insubordination against the betrayals, horrors and infidelities of life.”

Art Horror Art Is Betrayal Works Of Art Celebration Infidelity Great Work Retelling Transience Tehran Insubordination

Book:Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books

Source: Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books

About the Author

Born: December 1, 1955
Known for: Writer
Quotes: 121

Related Topics

Tehran Empathy Reality Iran People Imagination Ifs Literature Past Way

Popular Topics

People Ifs Thinking Knows Men World Way Want Love Life Inspirational Needs Giving Feels Should Writing Trying Years Mind Firsts

Books & Sources

Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in BooksRelated source material

The Republic of Imagination: America in Three BooksRelated source material

Things I've Been Silent AboutRelated source material

Read Dangerously: The Subversive Power of Literature in Troubled TimesRelated source material

Reading Lolita in TehranRelated source material

Things I've Been Silent About: MemoriesRelated source material

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