In contrast to the emphasis on the "filth" of Tehran, Soraya wrote with open admiration about how Paris "dazzled" her. Soraya described her time in Paris as "every day my heart was filled with sunshine. Life was light... it was wonderful to be able go to the cinemas, to drink a glass of lemonade on the terrace of the "brassie"... a pleasure forbade." Soraya wrote about her joy at attending school in Europe, unlike the Iranian schools with "the grey uniform, the stove which smoked and polluted the classroom, lessons, homework, work to the point of exhaustion".