Azar Nafisi and the women of Tehran, who see the future in the eyes of their mothers

“I am taking notes and in light of what is happening in Iran I would like to revisit the relationship that exists between West and East, especially through culture. Culture will save us”. in Rome, Azar Nafisithe author of the world bestseller Reading Lolita in Tehran, looks and thinks of his country of origin with a feeling that is never renunciation nor acceptance, but a continuous reaction and a hope “that never dies and saves us”. In that famous book published by Roberto Calasso and his Adelphi in 2004, he made us discover the soul of the seven young protagonists who were the mirror of the female condition under a fundamentalist regime, as well as daughters of a generation belonging to “one of the most advanced in the world regarding the status of women”. “In Iran – she explained, who is now an American citizen – the struggle for women’s liberation dates back to the beginning of the last century and it is there that they obtained the right to vote before some Swiss cantons. In Iran, women fight not because they are westernized, but because they go back to when they were free”.