About the book "Reading Lolita in Tehran" by Azar Nafisi.

Tehran 1979 - The Iranian Islamic Revolution, which divided the history of the state into “before” and “after.” This is a book written by a woman, about women, and for women. About those whose dreams, fears, and hopes collided with the harsh reality of the era. A book about inner strength, resistance, and attempts to preserve oneself.
Reading Lolita in Tehran is a memoir novel by Iranian writer Azar Nafisi, covering events from the establishment of the Islamic Republic to the 1990s. The book turned out to be not just a narrative of the author's life, but also a whole socio-political statement.
Against the backdrop of the internal socio-political situation in Iran over the past few years, the book's relevance has increased. In addition, many girls around the world began to see themselves in the desperate heroines of the novel.
The plot is based on real events that happened to the author herself when she lived in Iran. In the harsh new conditions after the Revolution, in order to somehow rethink reality, Nafisi decides to create a home literary club. Every Thursday, a group of students and young women gathered at her apartment to discuss the novels of Austen and Nabokov, Fitzgerald and James, and at the same time, common problems.
First of all, we need to pay attention to the title of the book. It refers us to another novel, Nabokov's Lolita, to which Nafisi's story is directly related. Nabokov's Lolita is the image of a small child who falls into the hands of the monster Humbert, who gradually robs her of her childhood. However, in Azar Nafisi's novel, Nabokov's plot takes on a new layer of meaning.
Deprivation of identity. For Nafisi, the new Islamic Republic represents that same pervert Humbert to girls. He not only takes away their dreams and freedom, but also deprives them of their subjectivity. Thus, Humbert is important not so much for the idea of physical violence as for the violence against someone else's inner world, the reshaping of a person's image according to his own desires in order to establish greater control over their consciousness. In such a society, even wearing is strictly forbidden. This is exactly how the new regime appears to the author and her friends.
In fact, we see that even the most innocent actions of the heroines are perceived exclusively through the male gaze:

"But that's nothing, said Manna; listen to what happened to my sister's friends at Amir Kabir Polytechnic University. During lunch break, three girls went out into the courtyard and ate apples. The guards scolded them, saying they were biting into them too seductively!"

It is important to note that during this period in Iran, among other things, any action, even personal or intimate, is inevitably colored as political. “If you are a true patriot, obey the law and don't dare to think freely!” — the authorities literally repeat.
The girls' dreams and their lives seem to be cut short in an instant. The male gaze and religious radicalization have brought about another change in the lives of Iranian women—the mandatory wearing of the hijab. It is interesting to note how it becomes a kind of political statement; to some extent, the compulsory wearing of the headscarf deprives the heroines of their own religion and will: “The problem was not so much the hijab as the freedom of choice”;
By wearing the headscarf, they no longer express their own beliefs, but obey a general rule, the violation of which is inevitably punished. Of course, it is important to note that religious identity is meaningful for many Muslim women, including those within Islamic feminism, since for many representatives of this movement there is no contradiction between religion and rights; the problem lies only in what they consider to be an incorrect interpretation of the Quran.
The relevance of the novel. The regime deprives women of the right to express their own religious and political views. From this point of view, it is interesting that in the context of the current protests in Iran, a way of showing solidarity has become the refusal to wear the hijab and the public removal of the headscarf, which, however, does not make these women non-Muslims. With this gesture, they are regaining not only the ability to speak openly, but also the opportunity to consciously choose their religion and observe religious rites of their own free will. Most importantly, they are declaring themselves to be equal citizens who can decide their own lives.

Abdullaeva Rayhonabonu.