the Israel advocacy group Scholars for Peace in the Middle East, criticized Dabashi for his remarks, stating that Dabashi's article was "sheer demagoguery" and that "attributing President Bollinger's remarks or behavior to racism is absurd." Reading Lolita in Tehran and Azar Nafisi In 2006, Dabashi sharply criticized Azar Nafisi for her book Reading Lolita in Tehran, stating that "By seeking to recycle a kaffeeklatsch version of English literature as the ideological foregrounding of American empire, Reading Lolita in Tehran is reminiscent of the most pestiferous colonial projects" and accusing her of being a "native informer and colonial agent." In an interview with Z Magazine, Dabashi compared Nafisi to former American soldier Lynndie England, who was convicted of abusing Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib." Nafisi responded to Dabashi's criticism by stating that she is not, as Dabashi claims, a neoconservative, that she opposed the Iraq war, and that she is more interested in literature than in politics. In an interview, Nafisi stated that she's never argued for an attack on Iran and that democracy, when it comes, should come from the Iranian people (and not from US military or political intervention). She added that while she is willing to engage in "serious argument... Debate that is polarized isn't worth my time." She stated that she did not respond directly to Dabashi because "You don't want to debase yourself and start calling names." References External links Official Web site Open Library Academic site at Columbia University Persian Biography, Makhmalbaf Film House. Op-eds Hamid Dabashi speaks in the documentary film on Omar Khayyām, Intoxicating Rhymes and Sobering Wine, (48 sec). Hamid Dabashi speaks at Harvard Law School American sociologists American literary critics American art critics American film critics 21st-century American historians American male non-fiction writers American anti-war activists Iranian democracy activists Columbia University faculty Harvard University alumni 20th-century Iranian historians Iranian expatriate academics Iranian literary critics American Iranologists Literary historians People from Ahvaz 20th-century Persian-language writers University of Pennsylvania alumni 1951 births Living people Critical theorists American writers of Iranian descent 21st-century American male writers