My Sister Guard Your Veil; My brother Guard Your Eyes

Heard a talk on Book TV moderated by Lila Azam Zangane, editor of My sister guard your veil; My brother, guard your eyes. She first interviewed Azar Nafisi, author of Reading Lolita in Tehran. Azar focused on literature, and how it can improve peoples lives. She also mentioned how well read Iranian students are in Western Literature, probably due to the censoring and repression in their lives, they see literature as an escape. She spoke about creating a third space through literature where compassion and sympathy can develop, so people can behave in humane ways. She seemed upset that people were labeling her as a neo-conservative, she defended herself by saying she was pro gay rights, pro women, and was against the Iraq war. Here are details of the criticism leveled on her by Hamid Dabashi

She was critical of Iranian President Ahmadinejad’s election, and said she thought it had been rigged. She came across as a charming woman, with a deep love for literature and her students.

She ended by remembering the recent passing of Muriel Spark, and described her book Loitering with intent as an allegory of literature and the world. Loitering with intent is a form of curiosity, and when one is curious, change happens.

Lila, then spoke with Roya Hakakian, author of Journey from the Land of No.

Azar Nafisi's student Naghmeh Zarbafian a poet and essayist of 'Misreading Kundera in Tehran'. A review of her essay is here.

Naghmeh considers Kundera's Identity and, specifically, the text in Persian translation. Because the novel was radically altered in translation it makes for an excellent case-study of contemporary Iran: the changes, demanded by the authorities and/or guessed in advance by the translator and publisher, prove as revealing as the text itself -- but just as interesting are the reactions by Iranian readers to the altered text they are presented with.

Azadeh Moaveni author of Lipstick Jihad and Time magazine reporter based in Tehran.

Shirin Neshat, a photographer and visual artist.

Question about Identity

Roya mentioned that Iran had the second largest Jewish population after Israel. She is Jewish Iranian.

Azadeh Moaveni spoke about not being considered Iranian, since those that were not in Iran during the revolution of 1979, are not considered true Iranians. She thought the question of who represents Iran was an important one.

Naghmeh Zarbafian- said Azar gave color to my life and made it colorful. Her life is marked by absence. In Iran, when she had to cover herself with the Burkha, she could just see shadows of herself. She speaks about absence through poetry through the luminous works of Hafiz and the dark colors of Andrew Whyte.

Shirin Neshat spoke about her relationship with both Iran and U.S.A. and said she did not want to be seen as a speaker or as an ambassador. She felt that undermined her work as it did not represent her vulnerabilities as a person and the limited the boundaries of her work. She stands between the East and West, and therefore does not have complete control over her work. She said she does not just exist in the world of her imagination, since her life has been shaped politically by exile, and personally by separation from country and family. Her art comes out of this context.

Adorna says the higest form of morality is not to feel at home anywhere.

Role as Iranian women

Roya felt the movie Osama was not fiction, but similar to her life. Since she challenged the restrictions of Hijab that were imposed on her. She felt being on the margins both in Iran and here, she shed the desire to belong and felt liberated. Once she was absolutely lonesome, that’s where art happened for her.

Shirin felt her work came out of madness. It was a dialogue between the world and her. Her controversial photographs Women of Allah, where she photographed Iranian women martyrs, were seen as sexualizing martyrdom. She felt she wanted to understand these women as mothers, so faithful to the faith and unafraid of death. Through them she was attempting to see the contradictions within herself, between believing and betraying.

Azadeh spoke about hedonistic orgies organized by the rich elite in Iran, dressed in all white, totally alienated by Iranian reality. She felt now for the average Iranian pre marital sex was not a big deal.

Naghmeh spoke about sexuality through the Danish cartoon controversy. After the controversy, the mullahs laid a decree that from now on, a Danish pastry, was going to be referred to as Roses of the Prophet Muhammad. More on the Danish pastry here. This reflected, how censors work to blank out sex from texts. This was a failure to want to see the other, which obstructed dialogue, by wiping out traces of Western culture by removal or manipulation.

Shirin felt it was a tremedous responsibility to have a voice, and it was important to navigate it complexly. For instance she is critical of aspects of this culture, but at the same time this society has given her refuge. She felt their was a danger of Western expectation of simplification. It is up to us to refuse this simplification. Sometimes we don’t have confidence to stand up to it, as we feel we don not live in our own cultures. This often leads to misrepresentation of our cultures.

Role of irony-

Naghmeh said she has learnt to have two sides to herself. In her life she wants to build a room of her own, reconcilliating the public and the private.

Roya felt Irony was a blind censor in Iran censoring film.