Title: The Lion Women of Tehran by Marjan Kamali
Book Beginning/ First Line Friday quote:
December 1981: I stood on the lacquered floor -- a small woman in black with a rectangular name badge on my chest.
Friday56 quote:
Lionesses. Us. Can't you see it, Ellie? Someday -- you and me -- we'll do great things. We'll live lives for ourselves. And we will help others. We are cubs now, maybe. But we will grow to be lionesses. Strong women who will make things happen.
Summary: Set in Tehran, Iran in the years 1950-1980, The Lion Women of Tehran tells the story of two girls who meet when they are in primary school and then follows the ins and outs of their lives and their friendship as they grow and change. There is Ellie who is raised to be a princess, to fulfill her mother's ideal of what a young woman can become -- a pampered wife and mother herself. And there is Homa who is raised by a communist father and a mother who loves to cook. She dreams big of what a woman's life could be outside the cultural norms. Both girls are brilliant and work hard at their studies. One day, while in college with the political turmoil roiling through the country, an innocent slip of the tongue leads to a betrayal that will have lifelong consequences. The novel is full of love and courage, "and is a sweeping exploration of how profoundly we are shaped by those we meet when we are young" (Publisher).
Review: The Lion Women of Tehran was a book club selection for January's meeting. Every woman in the club liked the book, which rarely happens, yet no one spoke of it in gushing, rhapsodic terms. It was a good, but not clutch-the-book-to your-chest-and-sigh good book. The publisher compares this book to The Kite Runner, set during the same time period in Iraq. But I argued this book, though very impactful, did not have the same emotional punch as its predecessor. One thing we all agreed upon, the book really highlights food and Iranian cuisine well. The descriptions of the food in the book made all of our mouths water. I wanted to try everything.
It was an excellent club choice, however, because there was so much to discuss about women's rights and how women have fared throughout history at the hands of men involved in extreme, fanatical wings of religions. Homa, who fights for women's rights in Tehran, because women are not allowed to keep their children if they get divorced in the 1960s, is shocked when the government is overthrown in the late 1970s and women are sent packing back to the middle ages, requiring women to cover themselves, not allowing most women to even work outside the home. Here we are in 2020s USA, and we can feel these same breezes blowing on our cheeks. Our grandmothers won the right to vote. Our mothers won the right for women to use contraceptives and to have equitable division of property and children after divorces. Now we are being threatened by Christian Nationalists, currently in charge of our government, that women will need to revert to old family values -- staying home and raising children -- which all they purport women are good for! See what I mean? We had a lot to discuss.
One woman reviewer on Goodreads said this about The Lion Women of Tehran:
While this novel didn't deliver the emotional punch I was expecting it to, it does fulfill its promise at providing a story filled with feminine courage and moral fortitude. Ellie and Homa are good examples of what women have always been fighting for and will continue to do so, especially in places where it is dangerous to do so. 3.5 stars
I agree with her estimation of the book. I liked the feminine courage and moral fortitude of the story. I liked the message of about important good friends are for us. I gave it 4 stars.
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