Reviewed by Leigh Infield

Best-selling author Marjan Kamali’s newest novel, The Lion Women of Tehran, is both timely and moving. Seen through the eyes of two seven-year-old girls, fast-friends from wildly different backgrounds, the book follows their fates during four decades of social and political unrest in Iran, beginning in the 1950s up to the 1980s.

The narrator, for much of the opening chapters, is Elaheh (Ellie) who comes from an upper-class background. Her mother is forever reminding her that she is descended from kings and queens—her grandmother the daughter of a Quajar king. With the death of her father, Ellie and her mother fall on harder times, moving to a small house in a run-down section of Tehran where Ellie befriends Homa, a neighborhood girl her own age.

The author’s lyrical prose takes us inside Tehran—its street life, and its traditions as she unfolds the story of their friendship. We can picture the two young girls exploring the bustling Grand Bazaar while playing “hooky” on a school day, and as they experience the breathtaking views of the city as they climb together to the top of a hill, smell the aromatic Iranian dishes Homa’s mother prepares—dishes that will always remind the two friends of home.

It is Homa, intelligent, passionate, energetic and rebellious, who drives the book’s narrative. She wants something better from life—for herself, her family, her community and for her friend.  Homa tells Ellie, “We are like cubs that will grow into lionesses—fierce, strong women who will shape Iran’s future.”

Kamali skillfully intertwines important themes as the emotional complexity of the girls’ friendship develops. In Homa‘s attempt to fit in with Ellie’s high school friends, the author focuses her narrative lens on the chasm in Iranian culture between the haves and have nots. The author addresses Iran’s turbulent political climate through Homa’s eyes as she embarks on a dangerous path of activism, fighting for both social and gender equality. It’s a fight that continues to this day.

Later chapters, slower in pace, take place in America where Ellie, all grown-up and married, has emigrated with her husband.

As they settle into a new life, the author gives us a closer look at the challenges of the immigrant experience: learning a new language, making friends, and adapting to new customs.

Homa spends her later years in Iran, still championing women’s rights. She bravely participates in protests well into her 70s, often in the face of imprisonment. It is in the novel’s concluding pages that Kamali skillfully shows us how friendships formed at an early age can have powerful repercussions later on in life.

This is a book you won’t want to put down. The novel draws you in as the two friends navigate betrayal, adversity and life changes. It reads, as one reviewer observed, as a love letter to the resilience of Iranian women. This woman agrees!~