Point of View

Nafisi narrates in first person, weaving an interconnected web of vignettes. The narrative is non-linear. The reader begins in Nafisi's study group, is transported back to Nafisi's college days in the U.S. ,and is then brought back to a shockingly changed Tehran. The reader sees Nafisi's students through her eyes. The reader sees the ideological fervor that Nafisi knows so well from her college days and that frightens her now. Each student's individual personality is brought out through Nafisi's discerning perception.

Setting

Tehran, Iran - 1979 to the late 1990s. The city of Nafisi's youth that is frozen in her mind during her absence has forever changed. Fragments and hidden corners of the city still evoke the past for Nafisi. But reality always intrudes in raids by the morality squads. In one sense the book is about an unsuccessful quest for a Tehran that is lost...