Monday, July 19, 2004

The Washington Post v Azar Nafisi

In a nasty article from Tehran entitledSorry, Wrong Chador , The Washington Post skewers Reading Lolita in Tehran (a book I'm reading now and hope to discuss later) as dated and irrelevant (interestingly, although I'm only halfway through, irrelevancy is a major theme of Nafisi's book, an irony reporter Karl Vick completely misses).

Yet some quotes in the article belie his obvious apologia for the kindler, gentler style of Islamist fundamentalism practied by the current Iranian regime--especially this one from a character in the book, known only as "the bookseller"...

"'My thumb's up for Azar Nafisi, because through this book she managed to get her revenge on the Islamic Republic,' the bookseller said."