Azar Nafisi is best known as the author of the national bestseller “Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books,” which electrified its readers with a compassionate and often harrowing portrait of the Islamic revolution in Iran and how it affected one university professor and her students, notes PBS. Earning high acclaim and an enthusiastic readership, Reading Lolita in Tehran is an incisive exploration of the transformative powers of fiction in a world of tyranny. A board member of the National Endowment for Democracy, the Washington-based democracy assistance group, Nafisi is featured in Season 3, Episode 9 of Finding Your Roots, with Henry Louis Gates, Jr.: The Long Way Home, which airs on PBS (check local listings).
