Azar Nafisi
Azar Nafisi
Azar Nafisi is an Iranian writer and professor of English literature. She has resided in the United States since 1997 and became an American citizen in 2008...
NationalityIranian
ProfessionWriter
america people soul
I see people who talk about America, and then undermine it by not paying attention to its soul, to its poetry. I see polarization, reductionism and superficiality.
believe people mind
I no longer believe that we can keep silent. We never really do, mind you. In one way or another we articulate what has happened to us through the kind of people we become.
islamic people age
I would like to say how much I resent people who say of the Islamic Republic that this is our culture - as if women like to be stoned to death, or as if they like to be married at the age of nine.
honesty people honest
She was one of those people who are irrevocably, incurably honest and therefore both inflexible and vulnerable at the same time.
who-i-am people hometown
When I walked down the streets, I asked myself, are these my people?, is this my hometown, am I who I am?
people littles facts
There is little consolation in the fact that millions of people are unhappier than we are. Why should other people's misery make us happier or more content?
dream people vision
The negative side of the American Dream comes when people pursue success at any cost, which in turn destroys the vision and the dream.
iran government people
Unfortunately for governments like that of Iran, when they forbid something, people become more interested.
almost austen authors best books disturbing gut james life obvious people students
People would react to books by authors like James and Austen almost on a gut level. I think it was not so much the message, because the best authors do not have obvious messages. These authors were disturbing to my students because of their perspectives on life.
china control forced instrument jackets mao people religion supposed system using veil wear wearing women
Religion was used as an ideology, as a system of control. When they forced the veil upon women, they were using it as an instrument of control in the same way that in Mao's China people were wearing Mao jackets and women were not supposed to wear any makeup.
portable status
I would like to think of my own status as what you called 'citizen of the world' or a 'citizen of a portable world,' if not of the world.
reading writing poor
Poor reading, like poor writing, is imposing what you already know on texts. You should go into reading to discover, not to reaffirm what you know.
book teaching passion
My passion has always been books and literature, and teaching.
children giving-up pain
I believe that it is only through empathy, that the pain experienced by an Algerian woman, a North Korean dissident, a Rwandan child or an Iraqi prisoner, becomes real to me and not just passing news. And it is at times like this when I ask myself, am I prepared - like Huck Finn - to give up Sunday school heaven for the kind of hell that Huck chose?