Here’s a website with some examples of Orientalist art:

http://www.orientalistart.net/

Dabashi’s essay goes well beyond a critique of the cover of Reading Lolita Tehran, and his arguments also examine the political-pedagogical dimensions of focusing on “western classics.”

Regarding the illiterate 18 year old guide: Ebadi seems well aware that the Iranian Revolution has had contradictory effects on social life, including the status of women. If the revolution has enforced hejab, it also appealed to a whole sector of Iranians who had never had any role in public life at all during the Shah’s dictatorship. Of course time has passed, and the situation has changed: Iranians under the age of 30 have no experience of life outside of an Islamic Republic.

I think the main thing to keep in mind here is that our political “common sense”– as people raised in a “permissive” society– won’t necessarily lead us in the right direction. The contradiction we face is 1) how to work for the dignity of women without 2) falling prey to “the imperialism of human rights.” Or at least this is ONE of the contradictions we might attempt to unravel.

For those interested in accruing further film knowledge of Iran and its recent history, go to the following link, a website which– imagine!– provides free streaming documentary films:

http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/iran-and-the-west/