Living in the Islamic Republic is like having sex with a man you loathe.
“
| — | From Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi |
You get a strange feeling when you’re about to leave a place, I told him, like you’ll not only miss the people you love but you’ll miss the person you are now at this time and this place, because you’ll never be this way ever again.
“
| — | From Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi |
You know, I feel all my life has been a series of departures.
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| — | From Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi |
From Reading Lolita in Tehran
Mahshid: You mean you don't have any sense of belonging here? I seem to be the only one who feels she owes something to this place.
Mitra: I can't live with this constant fear, with having to worry all the time about the way I dress or walk. Things that come naturally to me are considered sinful, so how am I supposed to act?
Mahshid: But you know what is expected of you, you know the laws. This is nothing new. What has changed? Why is it bothering you so much more now?
Sanaz: Maybe for you, it is easier...
Mahshid: You think I have it easy? Do you think only people like you suffer in this country? You don't even know what fear is. Just because of my faith and the fact that I wear the veil, you think that I don't feel threatened? You think I don't feel fear? It's rather superficial, isn't it, to think that the only kind of fear is your kind.
Sanaz: I didn't mean that. The fact that we know about these laws, the fact that they are familiar, doesn't make them any better. It doesn't mean that we don't feel the pressure and the fear. But for you, at least, wearing the veil is natural; it's your religion, your choice.
Mahshid: My choice. What else do I have but my religion, and if I lose that...
Yassi: I know what Mahshid's talking about. The worst fear you can have is losing your faith. Because then you're not accepted by anyone-not by those who consider themselves secular or by people of your own faith. It's terrible. Mahshid and I have been talking about that, about how ever since we could remember, our religion has defined every single action we've taken. If one day I lose my faith, it will be like dying and having to start new again in a world without guarantee.
We were unhappy. We compared our situation to our own potentials, to what we could have had, and somehow there was little consolation in the fact that millions of people were unhappier than we were. Why should other people’s misery make us happier or more content?
“
| — | From Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi |
