Lots of times you can feel as an exile in a country that you were born in.
Azar NafisiRead
Unfortunately for governments like that of Iran, when they forbid something, people become more interested.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Prohibitions often spark curiosity and rebellion, especially in restrictive societies.
Azar Nafisi's quote highlights the paradox of censorship, suggesting that when a government imposes restrictions on certain subjects or activities, it often leads to increased interest and desire among the populace. This reflection on human nature implies that the act of forbidding can unintentionally amplify curiosity and resistance, leading people to seek out what is being suppressed, thereby undermining the very authority that seeks to control them.
Themes
CensorshipCuriosityRebellionFreedomGovernment
In practice
Example use cases
During a speech at a human rights rally.
More from Azar Nafisi
All quotes βAfter the rigged Iranian presidential elections in 2009, the Islamic regime attacked the 'humanities' as the main source of protests, the most effective tool used by the West, especially America, to corrupt and incite Iranian youth, and finally closed down all the Humanities departments in Iran's universities.
Azar NafisiRead
The worst crime committed by totalitarian mind-sets is that they force their citizens, including their victims, to become complicit in their crimes. Dancing with your jailer, participating in your own execution, that is an act of utmost brutality.
Azar NafisiRead
I believe that it is only through empathy, that the pain experienced by an Algerian woman, a North Korean dissident, a Rwandan child or an Iraqi prisoner, becomes real to me and not just passing news. And it is at times like this when I ask myself, am I prepared - like Huck Finn - to give up Sunday school heaven for the kind of hell that Huck chose?
Azar NafisiRead
I am suddenly left alone again on the sunny path, with a memory of the rain.
Azar NafisiRead
It takes courage to die for a cause, but also to live for one.
Azar NafisiRead
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