Reading Lolita In Tehran

Every single day, we are faced with obstacles, but what determines the outcome is how we decide to conquer them. Frederick Douglass once acknowledged, “If there is no struggle, there is no progress.” In society, there is constant trial and error, but in order to achieve our desires, we must endure hardships. Throughout Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, Martin Luther King Jr’s “I Have A Dream”, Charles Euchner’s “Nobody Turn Me Around”, and Azar Nafisi’s memoir Reading Lolita in Tehran, a common theme is established: the struggle for freedom. It has become incredibly evident that struggling is essential to achieve freedom and progress. In Ray Bradbury’s compelling novel, Fahrenheit 451, Granger claimed, “We all made the right kind of mistakes,

This quote by Nafisi, “How can I create this other world outside the room? I have no choice but to appeal once again to your imagination” (1, 2), portrays the thoughts of Iranian women at the time, who struggled immensely to appeal to the government’s laws. Their actions, thoughts, and behaviors were forced to fit the expectations of society, which did not allow them any room to be themselves. Another limitation that girls faced through life in Iran is shown by Nafisi’s words on lines 12-14: “ … her [Sanaz] gait and her gestures have changed. It is in her best interest not to be seen, not be heard or noticed.” This is a prime example of the former quote, demonstrating how Iranian women were only allowed to live their life a certain way, disregarding their rights. Some may argue that the quote only reveals the struggle and not the progress of Iranian women. However, Iran has slowly begun accepting women and their rights by allowing them to gain important roles in the government and decision-making jobs. Like many other females, Sanaz experienced the struggle for freedom of expression, as the incredibly strict standards threatened extreme punishment to anyone that

once announced, “But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free… [from] segregation… discrimination…poverty… languishing in the corners of American society… and… in exile in his own land” (9-15). King addresses the ongoing battle for the rights of African Americans and how they were refused what they truly deserved. To introduce an opposing point, some may argue that King’s words do not support Douglass’ words, “If there is no struggle, there is no progress.” Due to the fact that they haven’t made any progress for a century, King implied that the African Americans would not be able to advance any further. Though King was expressing his concerns on the current situation, he soon declared, “There will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights” (49, 50), revealing how he believes that they can still fight to earn their freedom despite everything they’ve been forced to go through. Evidently, we can agree that our present society has made great progression towards equality for all races. With that fact, it is clear that their battle for rights is an example of how without struggle, there is no