Findlay, Ohio, March 27, 2003 — The University of Findlay and the World Affairs Council of Greater Cincinnati will sponsor a public presentation on educating women in revolutionary Iran on Wednesday, April, 2, 2003, from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. in the Endly Room of the Alumni Memorial Union.

Azar Nafisi, a professor for John Hopkins University’s School for Advanced International Studies in Washington, D.C., will speak on her book “Reading Lolita in Tehran.” Nafisi will retell the story of her last few years in Iran. Two years before she left Iran in 1997, Nafisi and seven young women gathered in her house every Thursday morning to read and discuss forbidden works of Western literature. She will speak on the experience of these women as well as the days when she first started teaching at the University of Tehran, a time when students took control of the university, expelled faculty members and purged the curriculum.

Nafisi won a fellowship from Oxford and taught English literature at the University of Tehran, the Free Islamic University and the Allameh Tabatabai University in Iran. She was expelled from the University of Tehran for refusing to wear a veil.

The presentation is free and open to the public. For more information, contact Jon Gordon at 419-43.4-4634.