Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books

Content Warning: This section depicts abuse of women.

In Part 4, Nafisi turns her focus toward her secret book club from 1995-1997. She describes heated debates between her girls about issues such as female agency, sexuality, and love. Part 4 explores the various personal dilemmas Nafisi and her girls face, with Jane Austen as the literary focal point.

Nafisi praises Austen’s Pride and Prejudice for “the variety of voices it embodies” (268), which creates a narrative in which “all tensions are created and resolved through dialogue” (268). She argues that while characters like the protagonist Elizabeth show the ability to listen, grow, and change, Austen’s more unsympathetic characters are unwilling to hear others. Austen’s subject matter, revolving around courtship and marriage, strikes Nafisi as especially relevant to the personal dilemmas she and her girls are wrestling with. She believes Austen knew that marriage poses “the question of individual freedom” (262), which preoccupies them all.

Several of the secret book club members confront issues concerning marriage and sexuality. Azin, one of the most lively and outspoken members of the club, confesses one day to being trapped in an abusive marriage. Azin is on her third marriage and unapologetic in discussing matters of desire and sexuality: “Perhaps she married so often because marriage was easier in Iran than having a boyfriend” (272).