Reflection of "Reading Lolita in Tehran" by: Azar Nafisi

We were assigned to read chapters 13 through 18 of Reading Lolita in Tehran which narrates the controversies that goes on in the classroom as the Professor discusses the novel of Daisy Miller. The mayority of the students in the classroom were absolutely shocked when they knew about Daisy's behavior, in fact most of them felt realieved when she died, but where mad because they thought the story should have ended there. In her class she had this student who most of the time irritated her, Mr. Ghomi, which could not understand how was it possible for Daisy to act that way. He also thought she was evil and revolutionary and deserved to die. He was one of the students that participated the most, since most woman were afraid to talk because it was such a controversial subject. They feared they would report them or something. If i was in that classroom, I would be afraid to talk or express myself freely. I could not imagine how horrible it would be to listen to someone argue on woman's behavior and not having the right or courage to stand up and defend myself. Nafisi had a feeling that people like Mr. Ghomi always attck because they are afraid of what the don't understand and I agree with her. When close minded people like Mr. Ghomi refuse to learn about other cultures or behaviors, they attack and defend their point of view because they always want to win. That is esactly what we should NOT do with people, refuse to accept them instead of learning about them.