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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. Why does Nafisi include a chapter on "Washington Square"?

2. Why does Nafisi say the dream in "The Great Gatsby" is not a comment on America as a materialistic county?

3. What right does Nafisi fantasize about being added to the Bill of Rights?

4. How is Nafisi's generation different from that of her students?

5. Why does Nafisi include the scene from "Invitation to a Beheading" in Chapter 22?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Nafisi do during her time as a member of the Iranian Student Movement?

2. How does Nafisi react to the increase in protests, demonstrations, and violence associated with the revolution?

3. What does Nafisi mean when she says that the real day of the Ayatollah's death has not yet occurred?

4. What kind of man is Mr. Bahri?

5. Why does the magician tell Nafisi to stop blaming the Islamic Republic for all her problems?

6. What does Nafisi mean by her statement that she "left Iran, but Iran did not leave me?"

7. In Part 3, Chapter 14, why does Nafisi describe her students in such detail?

8. Why does Nafisi get upset with students in her class at Alzahrah University (Part 3, Chapter 25)?

9. What does Nafisi do during her early years as a professor at the University of Tehran?

10. How are Mr. Ghoni's statements about "Daisy Miller" in Part 3, Chapter 15, similar to Mr. Nyazi's statements in Part 3, Chapters 17 and 18, about "The Great Gatsby"?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

In Part 3, Chapter 18, Nafisi describes a "perfectly equipped failure." In Part 3, Chapter 26, Nafisi provides characteristics of a traditional heroine. Using the descriptions and characteristics provided in these chapters, write an essay that addresses the following questions:

1) Would Laleh be considered a heroine or a perfectly equipped failure?

2) Would Razieh be considered a heroine or a perfectly equipped failure?

3) Which does Nafisi consider more worthy of admiration, a heroine or a perfectly equipped failure?

Essay Topic 2

Nafisi presents several male students as passionate about the values of the Islamist Republic of Iran. In what ways are Mr. Bahri, Mr. Nyazi, and Mr. Ghomi similar? In what ways are they different? Which one of those students is portrayed as being in closest agreement with the regime? What evidence supports your choice?

Essay Topic 3

Nafisi opens the book by asking the reader to imagine the secret class. She ends the book by wondering if she imagined the magician. Throughout the memoir, she mentions imagination in connection to the Iranian regime, to the authors of the fictional novels she teaches, and in the lives of herself and her students. What is the role of imagination in "Reading Lolita in Tehran"? How do each of those characters (the regime, the authors, Nafisi, her students) view imagination?

(see the answer keys)

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