Khatami Is A Symptom And Not The

We Do Not Read In Order To Turn Great Works Of Fiction Into Simplistic Replicas Of Our Own Realities, We Read For The Pure, Sensual, And Unadulterated Pleasure Of Reading. And If We Do So, Our Reward Is The Discovery Of The Many Hidden Layers Within These Works That Do Not Merely Reflect Reality But Reveal A Spectrum Of Truths, Thus Intrinsically Going Against The Grain Of Totalitarian Mindsets.

I Think Islam Is In A Sense, In Crisis. It Needs To Question And Re-question Itself.

For More Than 30 Years The Islamic Regime And Its Apologists Have Tried To Dismiss Women's Struggle In Iran As Part Of A Western Ploy.

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.

A Good Novel Is One That Shows The Complexity Of Individuals, And Creates Enough Space For All These Characters To Have A Voice; In This Way A Novel Is Called Democratic - Not That It Advocates Democracy But That By Nature It Is So. Empathy Lies At The Heart Of Gatsby, Like So Many Other Great Novels - The Biggest Sin Is To Be Blind To Others' Problems And Pains. Not Seeing Them Means Denying Their Existence.