Part 1: Chapters 7 - 8 Summary

Again, Nafisi returns to the two photographs of her students - one with them in full Islamic dress and one with the overgarments removed, revealing colorful shirts and scarves and earrings and wavy hair. It is easy to imagine one photo canceling the other. But, in reality, neither photo could exist without the other. In this room, the group increasingly identified with Lolita. No amount of outside oppression could stifle innate individuality. The room was a kind of odd and forgotten space between the cracks of brutality and madness.

Nafisi imagines and reconstructs what her students face after they leave this space of relative freedom. Her student must be careful to hide every lock of hair behind the veil, to don lace gloves to hide any nail polish, and to walk with head hunched down and determinedly, lest the...