Part 3: Chapters 6 - 11 Summary

As Nafisi wallowed in her newfound irrelevance, she subconsciously considered her options - accept the veil and return to teaching, leave the country, pretend to comply but undermine the regime secretly, or simply withdraw into silence.

Nafisi joins a Persian literature study group that met weekly in a different member's house each time. Persian classics would be read aloud and their richness contrasted with the foul, grinding, empty rhetoric of the regime and so much of public discourse.

The Arab conquest of Persia saw the destruction of much Persian learning and literature. This had to be recreated by the likes of Ferdowsi and Rumi. Nafisi felt that the present regime was like a conquest from within that was, in the name of culture and history, equally bent on destroying them.

Nafisi began writing articles on literary topics, but writing...