Marjan Kamali
The Lion Women of Tehran by Marjan Kamali opens in the 1950s. It tells the story of a lifelong friendship between two young girls growing up in Iran at a time of political turbulence, revolution, war, and civil strife.
The story unfolds primarily in the voice of Ellie who, at the age of seven, meets and befriends Homa. The two become inseparable until Ellie’s mother remarries and relocates to a different part of town. The friends reunite when Homa is admitted to Ellie’s elite high school. Although their friendship rekindles, the two girls are very different, harboring very different aspirations. Ellie falls in love and looks forward to marriage. Homa wants to become a judge and is politically active and outspoken in her opposition to the Shah’s oppressive rule. She is incarcerated, raped, and is six months pregnant before being released from prison.
The friends don’t reconnect until many years later. By this time, Ellie has escaped much of the political turmoil in Iran. She lives in America with her Iranian-born husband who is now a university professor. Homa, whose daughter is now a teenager, is, once again, politically active. This time her opposition is to the Muslim fundamentalist government that seeks to crush women’s freedom. Her commitment to human rights, especially the rights of women, is unwavering.
Moving at a brisk pace, the novel immerses the reader in decades of Iran’s history and culture. Against the backdrop of Ellie’s and Homa’s friendship is the political upheaval in Iran with the fall of the Shah, regime change following the Iranian revolution, the ascendance of Muslim clerics, the Iran-Iraq war, persecution, and civil unrest defying the Fundamentalists restrictions placed on women. Threaded throughout are frequent references to Iranian food, traditions, beliefs, hairstyles, and clothing. The challenges of assimilation that immigrants face is explored through Ellie and, later, through Homa’s daughter, Bahar. The novel ends in 2022 with Ellie and Bahar celebrating a birthday while Homa is back in Iran leading a demonstration in support of women’s rights.
As the narrator, Ellie is probably the least interesting character. She is naïve to a fault, superficial, and seems totally oblivious to the reality of what is happening in the world around her. Her focus during her high school years is on her appearance, clothing, popularity, and marriage. Meanwhile, dissidents to the Shah’s regime are being incarcerated, tortured, and killed. But in spite of her naivete, Ellie is well-meaning and has a good heart. She struggles with the guilt of unwittingly putting her friend’s life in danger. When given the opportunity to make amends with Homa, she does so unhesitatingly.
The novel’s strength lies in its immersion of Iranian culture and recent history. It’s portrayal of the vicissitudes in the lifelong friendship between Ellie and Homa is well-executed. But the novel is weakened by its lackluster point of view. It may have been strengthened by telling it through the point of view of Homa, a far more interesting and vibrant character.