The Lion Women of Tehran

Marjan Kamali's latest novel, The Lion Women of Tehran (#1,247) follows the friendship of two women who meet in Tehran when they are seven in the 1950s.  They live through tempestuous times in Iranian politics while negotiating their own paths through different social strata.  It makes for an interesting read.

Elli's family comes down in the world when her father dies, and she is forced to move from a mansion to the lowest part of town.  Her mother cannot cope with the change in circumstances, but Elli finds a warm substitute family when she meets Homa, a bright and engaging neighbor.  They become fast friends, competing to be the best, especially at school.  Homa's ambition is to become a female judge in a Persian society that is gradually opening up to women.  Elli isn't so sure what she wants out of life.

As the girls grow older, and enter university, Homa is drawn into political action.  Elli is more concerned with the young man she has met.  Homa's activism will eventually embroil both of them in danger from the Shah's Secret Police.  As Elli dutifully follows her husband to America as he takes up a teaching post at a New York University, Homa is jailed in Tehran.  The circumstances don't come to light until many years later, when Homa reaches out to Elli to shelter her daughter from a worsening situation in Iran.

Betrayal and heartbreak are at the center of this story, as the status of women in Iran deteriorates in the radical Islamic state which follows the Shah's ouster.  Much of the background will be familiar to you if you are old enough to have read the headlines of the time.  Ms. Kamali's novel puts a human face on that time and place in history.