I actually did teach Western literature to Iranian women in real life. Some people criticized me and said, "Why didn't you talk about Persian literature?" I tell them that I was an English professor, this is what I studied. Secondly, I told my critics that people should not be put in boxes. A white male from Milwaukee should be talking about Iranian literature and the woman from Afghanistan should be talking about French or Armenian literature. This is how we grow.

Living in a country which has deprived its people any actual contact with the outside world for a very long time, I have seen that the literature and culture of that world as a whole became a genuine means of connection. Many of my students really were hungry to know about what happened outside Iran. Further, works of fiction have a power to create images on...