Part 1: Chapter 17 Summary

In Invitation to a Beheading, Nabokov speaks of an "invisible umbilical cord that joins this world to something." For Nafisi and the students, the class became this umbilical cord. The class was an oasis of freedom and congeniality and intellectual and personal openness.

Suddenly, in the midst of such reveling about their little oasis, Nafisi's daughter, Negar, burst in, crying. In the middle of Negar's school day, the principal and the morality teacher entered and demanded that the students place their hands on their desks. All their belongings were searched for contraband such as friendship bracelets. A student who had recently returned from the United States was deemed to have fingernails that were excessively long. The girl's nails were then trimmed by the principal so close that blood was drawn.

Negar was upset that she was not allowed to approach and...