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Azar Nafisi: The Magic of Fiction
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Words of Wisdom

Azar Nafisi: The Magic of Fiction

On the transformative power of literature and the meaning of "upsilamba".

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Matthew Morgan
Apr 18, 2025
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Welcome to “Words of Wisdom”, a series that zooms in on a passage of writing — an essay, a chapter, a speech — from a great thinker on a specific idea.

Today, Azar Nafisi: one of those writers whose pen can switch with ease from sharp and incisive to elegant and heartfelt. Not only does she write compellingly on living a life of literature — in a manner that convinces the mind and moves the soul — she has lived out her principles with admirable courage, never allowing philistine censors or theocratic bullies to stifle her belief in the magic of books.

Here, I take a close look at her memoir, Reading Lolita in Tehran.

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