Azar Aryanpour, author of “Behind Tall Walls,” will visit the local area to speak about the condition of contemporary Iranian women. The lecture will be held at 2 p.m. April 10 at Monmouth County Library Headquarters, Symmes Drive, Manalapan.
Aryanpour will base her analysis on a comparison between her book and “Reading Lolita in Tehran” by Azar Nafisi. Aryanpour was an eyewitness to the Iranian revolution. Her husband, an American-trained surgeon, was wrongfully imprisoned for life by the government of the Ayatollah Khomeini. Aryanpour, also an American-educated professional who had returned to Iran, managed to escape to the United States, where she and her three children started a new life. “Behind Tall Walls” is part memoir and part historical account.
“Reading Lolita in Tehran” is the story of a courageous teacher who led book discussion groups for seven Iranian women who temporarily shed their veils to meet and consider their own lives in the light of literary works by Jane Austen, Henry James, F. Scott Fitzgerald and Vladimir Nabokov.
There is no charge for the program. Copies of “Reading Lolita in Tehran” and “Behind Tall Walls” are available at the circulation desk. For more information, call (732) 431-7242.