Azar Nafisi author of Reading Lolita in Tehran Henry J. Freede Wellness and Activity Center NW 27th Street and Florida Avenue 7:30 p.m., Wednesday, October 1, 2008 The Republic of the Imagination

Azar Nafisi was expelled from the faculty of the University of Teheran in 1981 for refusing to wear the Islamic veil. She returned to teaching in 1987 and left it once again in 1995, when she invited a small group of her female students to weekly sessions at her home, where they studied literary works considered subversive by the Iranian regime. In 1997, Nafisi left Iran for the United States, where in 2003 she completed her best-selling Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books, the compelling account of how Iran’s Islamic revolution affected her and her students. Five years after its publication, Reading Lolita continues to be a worldwide phenomenon. Nafisi teaches at the Foreign Policy Institute of Johns Hopkins University, where she directs the School of Advanced International Studies Dialogue Project. Her work investigates the political implications of literature and culture, and the human rights of women and girls. The title of her talk is from a book she is writing about the liberating power of literature. She earned her Ph.D. in English and American Literature at the University of Oklahoma. Free and open to the public Seating limited. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. For more information, call 405.208.4956