Classroom Activities and Assessments

Activity 1: Reimagining the World through Literature

In this lesson, which serves as a precursor to Reading Lolita in Tehran, students will think about the connection between perspective and literature.

Objectives:

This lesson reflects the overall purpose of the curriculum; it's a reminder to students of the transformative effects that literature can have on how we see ourselves and how we see others. Literature can free people from the shackles of their own lives and connect them to experiences that they otherwise would not have access to. It builds empathy and enables us to imagine new possibilities for what it means to be a citizen of the world.

Activity 2: Reading Orientalism in Reading Lolita

Some scholars have accused Nafisi's memoir of being complicit in perpetuating Western ideological beliefs by drawing on Orientalist discourse of the Middle East as oppressive and primitive. This lesson will have students examining passages from Reading Lolita against excerpts from Edward Said's Orientalism (1978) to come to their own conclusions about the extent to which Nafisi's memoir feeds into prevailing stereotypes about the Middle East.

Objectives:

The objective of this lesson is to encourage students to consider issues of perspective from an "inside" lens. Namely, how the positionality of Iranian women writing these memoirs affects, perhaps subconsciously, how they write their stories and what moral/ethical dilemmas that poses for Iran's national image.

Procedure:

Step 1:

In small groups, students will analyze passages from Edward Said's Orientalism, discuss Said's beliefs about the relationship between the West and the East, and then share their analysis during a whole-group discussion with the class .

Step 2:

Students will then transition to Reading Lolita in Tehran;

• Each group will get a selection of passages that offer Nafisi's opinion on a particular issue related to Iran/the regime

  • • The topics selected are up to the teacher's discretion and how far along in the book students are, but possible topics include Iranian/Muslim men, oppression of women/obsession with virginity, and underage marriage.

• In their groups, students will analyze these passages through the lens of Orientalism.

Once students have finished discussing in their groups, the teacher will facilitate a whole-class discussion in which students share their responses.

Activity 3: Exoticism and Mystification on Display

In this lesson, students will examine how Western publishing companies perpetuate stereotypes about Middle Eastern women through strategic marketing tactics.

Objectives:

The objective of this lesson is to invite students to consider the role that the publishing industry in the West plays in the consumption and production of these memoirs and the extent to which Iranian writers are able to control how their stories are told.

"The cover of Reading Lolita in Tehran is an iconic burglary from the press, distorted and staged in a frame for an entirely different purpose than when it was taken. In its distorted form and framing, the picture is cropped so we no longer see the newspaper that the two young female students are holding in their hands, thus creating the illusion that they are "Reading Lolita"--with the scarves of the two teenagers doing the task of "in Tehran." In the original picture the two young students are obviously on a college campus, reading a newspaper that is reporting the latest results of a major parliamentary election in their country. Cropping the newspaper, their classmates behind them, and a perfectly visible photograph of President Khatami--the iconic representation of the reformist movement--out of the picture and suggesting that the two young women are reading "Lolita" strips them of their moral intelligence and their participation in the democratic aspirations of their homeland, ushering them into a colonial harem"

-Hamid Dabashi, "Native Informers and the Making of an American Empire"

Procedure:

Step 1:

In groups, students will critically examine the cover of Reading Lolita in Tehran.

• They will analyze the cover against the original photograph from which it was reproduced, which features two women looking at the results of a parliamentary election in Iran (discussion questions are listed below).

After they have analyzed and discussed the photo with their group members, they will share their responses in a whole-class discussion.

Step 2:

The teacher should introduce students to excerpts from Hamid Dabashi's article, "Native Informers and the Making of an American Empire," a critique of Nafisi's book.

• Dabashi discusses how decontextualizing the cover of the book strips Iranian women of their autonomy and democratic beliefs.

Once students have evaluated the covers on their own and/or against Dabashi's article, they will be given a series of book covers of other memoirs written by Iranian women and analyze them (discussion questions for this activity are listed below).

• After students have analyzed and discussed the book covers in their groups, they will share their thoughts in a whole-class discussion.

Assessments of Learning

Reading Lolita in Tehran is a testament to both the power and limitations of literature. Books can help people reimagine different possibilities and invite them into the worlds of cultures and communities that they otherwise would not have experienced. However, people are also drawn to information that reinforces their beliefs and, if used irresponsibly, books can also serve as fodder for particular preconceived notions.

The following two assessments give students an opportunity to explore this dichotomy. These assessments do not necessarily have to be assigned directly after Reading Lolita in Tehran; they could serve as potential avenues that students may want to take for their final curriculum project.

Assessment Option 1: Books that are Windows and Mirrors

In Reading Lolita in Tehran and across her other works, Nafisi stresses the role books play in building democracies, transcending boundaries, and even developing a better understanding of one's own sense-of-self.

For this project, students will reflect on one book that left an indelible impression on them. While they are certainly encouraged to discuss a book that changed their worldview or spoke to some part of their identity, they are also welcome to talk about a book that negatively influenced them.

Guidelines for what modalities students can use to tell their story are up to the teacher's discretion, but their project should address the following questions:

• What inspired you to read this book? Was it a recommendation or a random pick? Did the cover peak your interest?

• What expectations for your reading experience did you have prior to beginning the book? In other words, what did you think the book would be about and how did you come to this conclusion?

• How did the book impact you (helped you better understand a part of the world, yourself, depicted something or someone unfavorably). Be sure to pull quotes from the book that contributed to that impact.

• Do some research on the author. How might their positionality have influenced the way they chose to write this book?

In addition to their story, students should submit a double-spaced 1-2 page reflection. Some questions to consider for the reflection include:

• Based on Reading Lolita in Tehran and your own book, what forms of power are exerted through literature?

• Why is it important that authors be mindful of the perspective from which they're writing from? Why is it important that readers be mindful of a story's subjectivity?

Assessment Option 2: And So the Story Goes...

Over the course of this curriculum, students have read a series of memoirs that offer different glimpses into the Iranian experience; these stories have showcased the effects of the 1979 Iranian Revolution from multiple points of view and the difficulties of trying to understand and assimilate to American culture as an immigrant while being severely misunderstood. Furthermore, using a critical media and Orientalist lens, students have examined how positionality and sociopolitical contexts affect how these memoirs are written, commercialized, and read. These stories are just a few of a growing number of memoirs that have been written from the Middle East and Iranian diaspora, all by writers trying to take control of a narrative that has often been written for them, whether by their own regime or by the Western media.

For this project, students will research and read a book written by an Iranian or Middle Eastern author and put together a presentation that incorporates the objectives and methodologies studied across this curriculum.

Students can choose to present their project either visually or in writing and some questions to consider when developing their project include:

• What do you think was the author's intent for writing this book?

• What new perspective on Iran/the Middle East did you gain?

• How might have the author's positionality played into how they told their story?

• What does the cover look like? To what extent did the cover/blurbs influence your perception of the book prior to reading? What might this say about the intentions of the Western literary market/the amount of control diasporic authors have on how their stories are read by the public?

Students are expected to reference either Edward Said's Orientalism or directly discuss their application of visual literacy skills in their presentation.