Review of THE LION WOMEN OF TEHRAN by Marjan Kamali (New Release)

3.5 Stars

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.