Part 2: Chapters 1 - 4 Summary

After spending her school and university years in England, Switzerland and the United States, Nafisi is drawn home to Iran. Not long after the 1979 revolution, she arrives at a Tehran airport. The last time Nafisi had seen the airport as a young girl, it was a magical place where children ate ice cream and watched planes land, and their parents dined in fine restaurants. Now, Nafisi is confronted with giant portraits of Ayatollah Khomeini glowering from on high, accompanied by slogans like "DEATH TO AMERICA!"

Nafisi married in her teenage years to a man who was very unlike her. They moved to Oklahoma, where he was pursuing his master's degree in engineering. They soon divorced and he returned to Iran while Nafisi stayed in Oklahoma.

Nafisi became active in left-wing student movements. The anti-Vietnam war movement was in full...