Thus The Regime Has Deprived

In The Past 30 Years, Officials Of The Iranian Regime And Its Apologists Have Labeled Criticism, Especially With Regard To Women's Rights, As Anti-islamic And Pro-western, Justifying Its Brutalities By Ascribing Them To Islam And Iran's Culture.

I Believe In Empathy. I Believe In The Kind Of Empathy That Is Created Through Imagination And Through Intimate, Personal Relationships. I Am A Writer And A Teacher, So Much Of My Time Is Spent Interpreting Stories And Connecting To Other Individuals. It Is The Urge To Know More About Ourselves And Others That Creates Empathy. Through Imagination And Our Desire For Rapport, We Transcend Our Limitations, Freshen Our Eyes, And Are Able To Look At Ourselves And The World Through A New And Alternative Lens.

Do Not, Under Any Circumstances, Belittle A Work Of Fiction By Trying To Turn It Into A Carbon Copy Of Real Life; What We Search For In Fiction Is Not So Much Reality But The Epiphany Of Truth.

Basically, Fundamentalism Is A Modern Phenomenon. In The Same Way That Hitler Evoked A Mythological Religion Of German Purity And The Glory Of The Past, The Islamists Use Religion To Evoke Emotions And Passions In People Who Have Been Oppressed For A Long Time In Order To Reach Their Purpose.

You Don't Read Gatsby, I Said, To Learn Whether Adultery Is Good Or Bad But To Learn About How Complicated Issues Such As Adultery And Fidelity And Marriage Are. A Great Novel Heightens Your Senses And Sensitivity To The Complexities Of Life And Of Individuals, And Prevents You From The Self-righteousness That Sees Morality In Fixed Formulas About Good And Evil.