By Azar NafiziDr Nafizi was raised in Iran, at a time when women were free to attend school, free to work, free to dress as they chose. After being educated abroad, she returned to Iran, shortly after the Iranian Revolution, and took a position teaching English at Tehran University. She eventually left her position over her refusal to don the veil. But she invites her students (all female - men are taught separately) to meet weekly (and secretly) to discuss literature. The students eagerly flock to Dr Nafazi's apartment, where they doff their veils, sip coffee, and discuss the likes of Nabokov, Austin, James, and Fitzgerald (among others). Meanwhile the Iranian regime becomes more totalitarian as sharia law prevails. While some intellectual women are arrested or even executed for "prostitution", even little girls are targeted, as the authorities at Azar's daughter's school clip off her fingernails, including her fingertips, for showing up at school wearing nail polish. The lack of women's rights is really outrageous. While this book is painful to read, it's important to realize that women in some countries are being treated worse than animals, and that they need the support, prayers, and encouragement of women and men from democratic countries - and let's work to keep our own country a place where women have equal opportunities under the law. Azar herself left Iran a few years before writing this book and is now a US citizen.
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