Inge Morath: Iran

by Azar Nafisi, Monika Faber, John P. Jacob (Editor)

In 1956, Inge Morath (1923-2002) traveled to the Middle East for Holiday magazine. She wore the traditional chador and traveled alone most of the time. "It was difficult to photograph there as a woman," she later recorded. In this body of work, Morath's subjects range from politics and religion to work and commerce, from the shah's palace to the nomad's tent to Zoroaster's sacred shrine. She photographed Iran with the keen vision of an anthropologist, examining religious rituals, costuming, work, sport, music, art and theater in order to document "the continuity--or lack of it--between past and present," as she later put it. Morath's work in Iran presaged her later work in Spain, China and Russia, creating an extensive document of the clash between modernity and tradition in the postwar Middle East. Retrospectively, Inge Iran recalls a land and a culture that have been profoundly transformed since the Iranian Revolution of 1979. It is a window into the past that provides a singular and timely perspective on Iran in the present.

350 pages, Hardcover

First published May 1, 2009

About the author

Azar Nafisi (Persian: آذر نفیسی) is an Iranian American writer and scholar of English literature whose work explores the political and imaginative power of books. Born in Tehran, she grew up in a family deeply engaged in public life. Her father served as mayor of the city in the early 1960s, while her mother was among the first women elected to the National Consultative Assembly. As a teenager, she left Iran to study in England and later Switzerland, eventually completing her university education in the United States. She earned a doctorate in English and American literature from the University of Oklahoma before returning to Iran shortly before the 1979 Revolution.
Nafisi began teaching at the University of Tehran, but her refusal to comply with mandatory veiling laws led to her expulsion in 1981. After a period of political and cultural uncertainty, she resumed teaching at Allameh Tabataba’i University. Her relationship with the institution remained fraught, and by the mid 1990s she had distanced herself from formal academic life. From 1995 to 1997, she held weekly literary discussions in her home for a group of female students, creating an intimate space where they read and interpreted novels considered unwelcome by the authorities. These meetings became the foundation for her most influential book, Reading Lolita in Tehran, a memoir that intertwines literature, personal reflection, and the lived realities of women in post-revolutionary Iran.
Nafisi moved to the United States in 1997 and later became a citizen. Her subsequent work continued to explore the role of books in shaping identity, imagination, and civic life. She has written widely for major newspapers and literary outlets and has held academic and public-intellectual roles at Johns Hopkins University, Georgetown University, and Oxford. Her books include Things I’ve Been Silent About, The Republic of Imagination, That Other World: Nabokov and the Puzzle of Exile, and Read Dangerously, each extending her conviction that literature offers a unique form of moral and imaginative resistance.
Her writing has received significant critical acclaim, earning awards for both literary merit and intellectual courage. In 2024, Reading Lolita in Tehran was adapted for film with Golshifteh Farahani portraying Nafisi. Throughout her career, she has spoken and written about the intersections of culture, authoritarianism, and personal freedom, insisting on the enduring relevance of literature in societies confronting political pressure. Her work continues to spark debate, admiration, and reflection across a wide international readership.

Reviews

[Mary · Rating 5 out of 5]

Inge Morath survived Nazi Germany, photographed all over the world and then married Arthur Miller. I love her work.

[Mirella Ducasteele · Rating 3 out of 5]

Gekocht op het Boekenfestijn
omdat het over Iran gaat
Mooi fotoboek met foto's genomen tussen 1956 en 2002.
Wat me opvalt: het grote aantal hoofddoeken in de periode dat het niet moest ...

[Wendy · Rating 5 out of 5]

SUCH a fascinating collection of photographs of Iran in the late 1950s. Female photographer shooting alone, in urban and rural settings, covering so very many interesting facets of Persian life and culture.