Reading Lolita in Tehran
I am an ardent fan of self-care. Each week, whether I need it or not I give myself a thorough massage with scented oils, and allow myself the pleasure of reading a portion of a book that has nothing whatsoever to do with work. This past month I read Azar Nafisi’s absorbing portrait of Iranian intellectuals during the early years of the Islamic Republic in Reading Lolita in Tehran.
When I was in high school and again in college, I taught English as a Second Language to a group of Iranian students and got involved in their food, their politics, their family dramas and their lives. The group I taught in high school fled to America from the Shah and the group I taught in college, from the Ayatollah. A fair few were scarred by their experiences under both regimes and many preferred not to talk too closely about things that went on back home. Nafisi’s book, while clearly written from the viewpoint of a privileged intellectual, revealed many things about the timeperiod that helped me twenty-odd years later to fill in some gaps in my former student’s lives. Those interested in the historial period, in classical literature and in the ongoing struggle of women for equality in third world countries will enjoy this lush and moving portrait. For me, pastries, Turkish coffee, the company of other interesting women and discussion on topics dear to us is about as close to heaven as it gets… 
What does it for you? What is so heavenly and self-nurturing that you willingly indulge to follow your bliss?
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