Kahala Nui will host Jafar Yaghoobi, author of “Let Us Water the Flowers: The Memoir of a Political Prisoner in Iran” (Prometheus Books, 2011), at 2 p.m. Monday, when he will speak about his torture and imprisonment in his native Iran during the 1980s.

Yaghoobi was arrested after he returned from earning a doctorate in genetics at the University of California at Davis and took part in the resistance to Ayatollah Khomeini’s regime.

He will be introduced by Tom Klobe, emeritus professor of art at the University of Hawaii and author of “A Young American in Iran” (Peace Corps Writers, 2014).

At 10:30 a.m. every Wednesday through Feb. 22, Klobe will speak about how Islamic scholars, who translated and expanded on the works of classical writers, influenced the European Renaissance. Both authors will speak in the Diamond Head Room at Kahala Nui, 4389 Malia St. The events are free and open to the public.

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NA MEA BOOK HUI LAUNCHES AT NEW SITE

From 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. Feb. 15, the newly formed Na Mea Hawai‘i Book Hui will meet and discuss its first selection, “Big Happiness: The Life and Death of a Modern Hawaiian Warrior,” the acclaimed biography of sumo wrestler Percy Kipapa by Mark Panek (University of Hawai‘i Press, 2011).

Open to the public and free, Na Mea Hawaii book club meetings will be held the third Wednesday of every month at the store’s new location in the old Happy Haleiwa space at Ward Warehouse. For more information: info@nameahawaii.com, 596-8885.