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TITLE: Women in Iran: Past, Present and Future
SPEAKER: Azar Nafisi
EVENT DATE: 03/16/2004
RUNNING TIME: 67 minutes
DESCRIPTION:
Nafisi discusses the current state of women in the Islamic republic of Iran.
Speaker Biography: Born in Tehran, Iran, Azar Nafisi was sent by her parents to England at the age of 13 to finish her studies. Upon completing her degree in English and American literature, she returned to Iran after the 1979 revolution. She began teaching at the University of Tehran and was expelled from the university in 1981 for refusing to wear the mandatory Islamic veil. She did not resume teaching until 1987. A decade later, she came to the United States, where she currently teaches culture and literature at the School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University. For several years before leaving Iran, Nafisi gathered seven young women at her house every week to discuss forbidden works of Western literature. The experience is recounted in her recent book, "Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books."