“Native Informer”: An Interview with Azar Nafisi
Azar Nafisi is the author of the bestseller Reading Lolita in Tehran and most recently Things I’ve Been Silent About. She was kind enough to field a wide-ranging interview with Jacobin earlier this month.
Bhaskar Sunkara
After the success of Reading Lolita in Tehran you were attacked by some intellectuals on the Left, Hamid Debashi, among others. He called you “the personification of that native informer colonial agent.” Were you surprised that the book was stridently criticized by the Left and not just by supporters of the regime in Iran?
Azar Nafisi
You know, in one sense I don’t take that sort of criticism seriously because it doesn’t take itself seriously. It claims to be based on fact, but it’s fantasy. Things that have been attributed to me, for example about the war in Iraq or other military interventions, are false. Even before the war in Iraq I was publicly against it. It’s in the record. It’s in the talks I’ve given, it’s in the articles I’ve written. Being a staunch supporter of human rights I would never back military intervention in another country, especially Iran, because for me democratization means change from within.
Sorry, but this article is available to subscribers only. Please log in or become a subscriber.