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Azar Nafisi is best known as the author of the national bestseller Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books, which electrified its readers with a compassionate and often harrowing[…]
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Khosro, among others.

Question: What Persian poets influenced you?

Azar Nafisi: : Well the ones that I have been brought up with, but I think they are the best mainly are the classical poets – ..., which is one of the most wonderful poets of all times, not just Persian; the great ...poets.... . . That is how we found my daughter’s name. Usually Persians, they ask... advice for everything. And when someone is born, a lot of Persians are used to opening ...to see what is the future . . . what the future holds for the baby. And that is how we named our daughter. It’s a word from a poem by .... .... . ....I love..... And then there are modern poets. Iran at the beginning of 20th century had not just a political revolution, which led to the constitutional revolution and a constitutional monarchy, but also a very radical cultural revolution. And they introduced modern poetry and prose, so .... So there are many fortunately.

Recorded on: 2/22/08

 


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