Having Two Perspectives

Azar Nafisi travels back to the time where she taught at the University of Tehran. She starts explaining how slowly books were started to being banned, without she even noticing. Nafisi was reading The Great Gatsby and A Farewell to Arms when the owner of the bookstore told her, “If you’re interested in those, you’d better buy them now” (91). And indeed in a few months such books were almost impossible to find. She explains how nervous she was before her first day of class because during that time the students took control of the university and expelled faculty members. What could she expect? Only bad things. The government was all ready removing foreign books and blocking its distribution, so it was obvious how the students would treat a new foreign teacher.
To my surprise the class was went well and the students showed interest toward the topics being discussed. I believe that the class went well because she was “enthusiastic, naïve and idealistic, and I was in love with my books” (93).

On the other hand I think that she showed a new perspective towards the world they were living in. She insisted on everyone to consider the world they were living around. Most of the students had lived their entire lives in Tehran so they had only lived and seen their life. They haven’t travelled and seen how the rest of the world live on a more equal and peaceful way. Living on war was just normal to them. She states, “I told my students I wanted them in their readings to consider in what ways these works unsettled them, made them a little uneasy, made them look around and consider the world, like Alice in Wonderland, through different eyes” (94). No wonder why all students were interested in her class, they wanted to learn about the world and not be stick with Iran´s war forever.

Being a teacher during that time was not a simple task. Everyone was differentiated by their political affiliations and one had to determine who was against who and who belonged to each group. She was able to determine this by the seating position of the students, “My most radical students sit in the very back row, with sardonic smiles” (94). She learned how to read people.
Most of the classes were in constant manipulation of the teachers, “I remember one day when my leftist students had canceled classes, protesting the fresh murder of three revolutionaries, I was walking downstairs when they caught up with me” (95).

Surviving the Revolutionary War as a citizen was a complete different thing as surviving it as a foreigner. Foreigners have seen the better life; they have lived it. They can easily compare how women are treated in the United States and how they are treated in Iran. By having two perspectives everything becomes more shocking.