The Lion Women of Tehran, Marjan Kamali, author; Mozhan Navabi, Nikki Massoud, narrators
This novel is largely about the treatment of women in Iran and the reaction of Iranian women, the world, and others to their plight, as conditions there changed. At the age of 10, Ellie and her mother were forced to move to a poorer neighborhood than the one they had been accustomed to, because Ellie’s father had died. They were helpless, since they were dependent on his brother for their safety and well-being. Although her uncle was obligated to take care of them, he refused to allow them to stay in their expensive home unless her mother married him. Her mother refused.
In her new school, Ellie met Homa, a child from a more modest background. Her mother did not approve of their friendship, believing that Ellie was superior to Homa because of her ancestry. However, they became fast, best friends and soon decided that they would both become lion women, women who were indestructible, courageous, and strong. When, after a time, Ellie’s mother changed her mind and married her husband’s brother, allowing them to move back to an upscale community, Ellie and Homa’s relationship suffered from the separation. They didn’t meet again until Homa attended the same school as Ellie, on scholarship. Homa was hoping to become a lawyer, She had become an activist and was a Communist like her father. She objected to the Shah’s rule. She seemed more sophisticated than Ellie who had been raised with superstition and was sheltered by her mother.
Unfortunately, while at a party, Ellie’s friend’s husband questioned her about her life, her politics, her friends and their activities. He made her feel that he was truly interested in her situation and that he approved of her activism. She thought of him as a father figure, since he was older, and she missed her own father who had died. This man was not innocently probing her about her life; he was a spy and was actually working for the government. Because of the things that Ellie revealed, her friend Homa was arrested and violated in prison. When she was released, she married Abdol and delivered a daughter, Bahar. She cut Ellie off and ended their relationship. How did prison change Homa’s path in life? What tragedies followed her?
Ellie married, and she and her husband moved to New York City where he worked as a scientist. Out of the blue, several years later, Homa called Ellie. She explained that the situation in Iran was growing much worse and she asked for a favor. The Shah had been overthrown and the theocracy was fast becoming a reality. It was not the government that the revolutionaries had hoped for, and Homa asked Ellie if she could send her daughter to America to finish her education, and hopefully, also to go to college there. Will Ellie comply with her old friend’s request? She and her husband are childless. As the time passed, secrets were revealed that challenged Ellie’s beliefs. How did she handle the new knowledge and information? This novel is a story that begins in the 1950’s and ends in 2022. It follows the lives of Ellie and Homa into the future and contrasts the life in America with the life in Iran. Tragedies take place and the reader witnesses how the characters deal with them. War is inevitable. Friendships are challenged. Loyalties are questioned. Inadvertently, innocence and/or ignorance, lead to betrayals and injury.
As the book develops further, the reader will experience the confusion of the immigrant in a new environment, with a new language and a new lifestyle to manage. The book will illustrate the deterioration of the situation in Iran, the revolution and the wars, and the never-ending efforts of the “lion women” to bring about positive change in a country that is fast becoming a radical theocracy with abusive laws to control women and allow men to act freely. Will these lions one day be successful in their quest for equal rights and a life of human dignity? It will be a journey that will not be easy.
There are some light moments in the book. like when it highlights tv diners and frozen fish sticks. I happily learned that Bloomingdales was the first to introduce frozen yoghurt. There are both heartwarming and heartbreaking moments in the book and because I grew up in the same general time as Elaheh (Ellie), I can attest to the authenticity of the character’s experiences, from the frankfurter stands to the scent of Bloomingdale’s, from the interference of the United States government into the affairs and government of Iran and the Shah, to the rise of the radical Theocracy now in place, and to so much more. This book will break your heart as it enlightens you to the plight of the women in Iran and to the accepted cruelty of the men in charge. Perhaps, it will also make you wonder how American women, pretending to be so interested in human, civil, and women’s rights, can be so silent on the issues facing the women in Iran. Is it simply a belief in the left-wing politics, that seems to be pro-Iran, that prevents these women from being “lions” and vocally objecting to the suffering of these women? Perhaps, after reading this book, if truly interested in furthering the cause of women’s rights, they will find the “lion” in themselves and offer more support to the abused women in Iran and in all extremist countries. While the novel delicately exposes the horrific treatment of women and the growing desperation they feel in Iran, because of the lifestyle they are forced to endure, sadly, it offers no solutions. It does highlight the strength of those women, the “lions” who fought and still fight the system, even in the face of the grave danger threatening them when they protest their government and their abusive treatment. The “lions” want reform and are fighting for it in any way they can. I believe that women in America should be actively supporting them. What do you believe? ( )

When Elaheh’s father dies, she and her mother must move to a small apartment in the poor section of Tehran. When she meets Homa, she knows she has made her first real friend, but she has no idea what lies ahead for her, her friend, or Iran. The Lion Women of Tehran by Marjan Kamali follows Ellie and Homa from their childhood in the 1950s to the current time through the political changes in their country. Kamali does a nice job of creating two strong female characters who want different things and fight in different ways but stay friends. Readers who enjoy family sagas and about other countries and cultures will enjoy The Lion Women of Tehran. ( )

The Lion Women of Tehran by Marjan Kamali was one of my most anticipated reads of 2024 and I'm glad to say that I was not disappointed.

“Shir zan. Lionesses. Us. Can’t you just see it, Ellie? Someday, you and me—we’ll do great things. We’ll live life for ourselves. And we will help others. We are cubs now, maybe. But we will grow to be lionesses. Strong women who make things happen.”

Written in beautiful prose, this evocative story spans the 1950s through the 70s and 80s to the present day and follows Elaheh “Ellie” Soltani and Homa Roozbeh – girls from completely different backgrounds who meet in Tehran as seven-year-olds who become fast friends but drift apart - a cycle that continues as their lives intersect time and time again and their fates intertwine against the volatile backdrop of the Iranian Revolution and the decades that follow. The author addresses several important themes, including social class, feminism, women’s rights and political activism, and the immigrant experience, while also giving us a glimpse into Iranian life and culture. The story is set in Tehran for most of the 50s and 60s and both the United States and Tehran for the remainder of the novel.

The narrative is presented predominantly from Ellie’s perspective, though we do get a few segments from Homa’s perspective. Both main characters are well fleshed out and their dynamic as it evolves over decades is realistically depicted, but I wish we could have explored a few of the crucial secondary characters in more depth. I also wish Homa’s perspective had been in more detail and that her story had been told with less telling and more showing particularly toward the end of the novel.

The themes in Marjan Kamali’s latest novel are realistic, relatable and most importantly, timely and relevant. The author’s portrayal of the changing socio-political landscape of Iran during the Iranian revolution and its aftermath with emphasis on women’s rights will inspire reflection. We can’t help but ponder over the fact that many of us have been afforded freedoms that others do not enjoy - freedoms that we often take for granted and rights that women all over the world have fought for in their own time and continue to do so today.

“That’s how losses of rights build. They start small. And then soon, the rights are stripped in droves.”

Overall, I found this to be an immersive and thought-provoking story about friendship, courage, healing, empathy and acceptance, forgiveness and redemption, with characters who will stay with you long after you have turned the last page.

I paired my reading with the audiobook brilliantly narrated by Mozhan Navabi and Nikki Massoud.

“In my women’s organization and our activism, one thing that we're trying to uphold is that feminism comes in many shapes. We should not shame women who choose to take care of home and family. As long as it’s the woman’s choice. I don’t mean to imply that your job now, or even if you chose in the past or later choose to stay home, is in any way antifeminist. Because all of it has a place in true feminism. A woman has a right to live a life of intense career ambition or one of more mellow ambition or what have you. As I say, whatever she chooses.”

I couldn’t agree more. What could be more important to a woman than her right to choose? ( )

This is a story about female friendship told against the backdrop of political upheaval in Iran.

In 1950, Elaheh (Ellie) Soltani is seven years old when her father dies. She and her mother are left in reduced circumstances and have to leave their large comfortable home to a tiny home in a poor neighbourhood. On her first day of school, Ellie meets Homa Roozbeh, and the two become best friends despite class differences and different personalities. Though they have different ambitions for their futures, both want to grow up to be lion women who are bold and courageous: “Strong women who make things happen.”

After three years, Ellie and her mother are able to return to their former lifestyle and the two girls are separated until a few years later when Homa reappears in Ellie’s privileged world. The two re-connect and pursue post-secondary educations, but political turmoil and an unintentional betrayal have devastating consequences.

Most of the novel is from Ellie’s perspective; only in the second half is the reader given brief sections from Homa’s first-person point of view. Homa is a lion woman from the beginning; Ellie becomes stronger only later in life, and even then she has to be pushed by others to take positive action. Whereas Homa is always admirable, I found Ellie difficult to like. Though intelligent, she is naive and shallow. Self-centred, she tends to be jealous of others. Her focus is finding a husband and having a family. Homa, on the other hand, is kind, spirited, strong-willed, and resilient. She becomes a political activist committed to women’s rights and is willing to risk her personal safety in order to achieve her mission. When we learn about Homa’s reason for keeping her distance from Ellie, one’s admiration cannot but increase.

The theme is friendship: how true, deep friendships can shape our lives. In the book, the actions and choices of one affect the life of the other. The book opens with a quote which clearly indicates the theme: “Events that seem to appear in the present from out of nowhere in actuality have a long history behind them.” The two girls from different social classes and with their different temperaments create a bond that is unbreakable despite separation, trauma, and revolution.

I also enjoyed the novel’s examination of the mother-daughter relationship. Ellie and her mother have a difficult relationship. Ellie describes her mother as “social-climbing, borderline narcissistic, always seemingly selfish” and “striving, shallow, and infuriating.” As a young girl, she wishes she had a mother more like Homa’s. Ellie too has some of these negative traits, and there is no doubt that her choices are strongly influenced by her mother. Only later does Ellie learn about her mother’s secrets, and she comes to terms with her mother’s failings because there is no doubt that she always loved her daughter.

The book provides interesting insights into Iranian culture. There is, for example, a detailed description of a wedding ceremony, and several instances of Iranian etiquette known as tarof: “the classic thanking and praising of the other and self-deprecation of the self.” Ellie learns to cook from Homa’s mother so there are numerous references to traditional dishes.

Since Homa is so passionate about women’s rights, there is a lot of information about the challenges faced by women in Iran. What is especially interesting is that we see women’s lives under both the Shah and the Ayatollah. Divorce and custody laws were improved and women were granted suffrage during the Shah’s rule; after the Islamic revolution, women’s rights were restricted. Several laws were enacted regarding mandatory veiling and a public dress code for women, and restrictions were removed on men's rights to child marriage. The book ends with reference to Mahsa Amini and the protests after her death.

Though I found the book rather slow at times, it has much to offer readers.

Note: I received an eARC from the publisher via NetGalley.

Please check out my reader's blog (https://schatjesshelves.blogspot.com/) or my substack (https://doreenyakabuski.substack.com/) for over 1,000 book reviews. ( )

June 3, 2024
I have never read anything else by this author, nor have I ever read anything about Iranian culture. I found myself at first mesmerized by this novel. Unfortunately, it seems written more for the young adult crowd than for anyone else. Let me amend that last sentence: MOST of the novel seems written for Y/A's.

It is a fascinating look into a culture I know little about, and it is a captivating history of Iranian women, politics, and the deep and abiding friendship of two women who met when they were 7 years old and kept their friendship going for most of a lifetime.

This was a fast and engrossing read, perfect for those who want to know more about the culture and what women have gone through and are going through now.

*ARC was supplied by the publisher Gallery Books/Simon & Schuster, the author, and NetGalley. ( )