Azar Nafisi, a human rights activist and author of ‘Reading Lolita in Tehran,’ shares a smile with the crowd at the Tate Lecture yesterday evening after admitting her first visit to Dallas was to attend a Texas vs. Oklahoma football game. (John Schreiber)

Last night, human rights activist and author of the national bestseller ‘Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books, ‘Azar Nafisi addressed the attendees of the Tate Lecture Series on how the politicizing and polarization of nations has brought about a wave of injustice in the absence of the humanities, and how “literature, and the arts in general, can connect you to the people you should be connected to.”

Nafisi opened with her concern that “Everything [is] becoming so politicized and segregated that politics are losing their meaning.”

She went on to explain how everyday actions lead to this environment.

“Watching channels and shows that you already agree with only creates greater polarization,” Nafisi said, “which leaves no room for any outside opinion or abstract thought in order to gain a broader perspective of things. And without that poetic vision to see what exists and what doesn’t exist we will be in serious trouble.”

Nafisi asked the audience to think about their personal thoughts about Iran and Islam. She pointed out a “narrow-mindedness” people have.

“When you think of Islam you think of fundamentalism,” Nafisi said, “when in fact Islam has just as many interpretations and translations as Muslim or Christianity or Judaism.”

Nafisi closed her lecture with a stance that people are still too shocked to recognize themselves in each other, no matter if it’s the best qualities or the worst.

“Every nation in the world is ashamed of something in its past, and despite the passage of time, we always turn to the things that show us how unique we are,” Nafisi said.

Nafisi has been a leader for young women in Iran. Her bestseller is a non-fiction account of her experiences as a former university professor who secretly taught a group of women students at her home in Tehran during the Islamic revolution. Even in her early years, she exhibited the traits of a passionate and dedicated student of literature when she earned her Ph.D. in English and American literature at the University of Oklahoma. In 1979, Nafisi returned to Iran to teach English literature at the University of Tehran until she was expelled from the university in 1997 for refusing to wear the mandatory Islamic veil. She is currently a visiting professor at the Foreign Policy Institute of Johns Hopkins University.

Nafisi ended her speech with her “favorite” slogan: “readers of the world unite!”