The women who became lionesses
‘Friends are forever’ is an old saying but still very applicable. Though there are exceptions. However, here we are not talking about exceptions. We are talking about the bond that bears years of separation and miles of distance, yet withstands the test of friendship.
We see this type of friendship in Marjan Kamali’s book The Lion Women of Tehran. Kamali, is an award winning Iranian-American novelist and author, whose books have international acclaim and have been translated in more than 25 languages. Born in Turkey to Iranian parents, she spent her childhood in Turkey, Iran, Germany, and Kenya, before settling in the US. Her debut novel, Together Tea, was published in 2013 and the second, The Stationery Shop of Tehran was published in 2019. Her latest and hopefully not the last, The Lion Women of Tehran, published in 2024, follows the deep, complex bond between two girls, Ellie and Homa, growing up against the backdrop of political turmoil in Iran during the 1950s and 60s.
Our protagonists, Homa (named after a legendary bird from Iranian mythology that is said to never rest on the ground and lives its entire life invisibly flying above the earth) and Elaheh (meaning goddess) shortened to Ellie, meet each other when they were seven years old in the Tehran of 1950s. Their friendship is tested from time to time as life, social status, wealth, and their families come between them. Both come from different backgrounds—one is born to low-income parents and the other is born to wealthy parents. However, due to the death of her father, Ellie (the wealthy one) and her mother are forced to move to a tiny home in an impoverished area of Tehran, where they (especially the mother) find themselves out of place.
Ellie is admitted to a school in a locality perceived as a slum neighbourhood. Lonely and bearing the brunt of her mother’s endless grievances, she is excited at the prospect of attending a school, dreaming of making some friends. Luckily, on the first day, she meets Homa, a kind, intelligent, and passionate, yet high-spirited, and often reckless girl. Homa, intrigued by the new girl in class, enthusiastically pursues a friendship with her. Despite initial reluctance, Ellie accepts her friendship and the two become best friends.
With time the two girls become inseparable. Though Ellie’s mother, conscious of her elite background (she claimed to be the descendant of a Qajar king), does not approve of their friendship, insists that Homa and her family are far beneath Ellie’s social standing, and forbids Homa to visit her house, the two girls together play games, wander through the colourful stalls of the Grand Bazaar, and share their ambitions for becoming “lion women”. Homa also introduces Ellie to the joy of home-cooked foods crafted in a modest stone cave-like kitchen by her mother, Maman Joon, who also teaches the two girls the secrets of her food preparation, how she selects the ingredients and specific flavours she seeks to achieve in both her savoury and sweet dishes.
Although a rebellious risk-taker, Homa fuels Ellie’s interest in higher education, and urges her to take schoolwork more seriously. Homa’s desire is to attend Tehran University, achieve her dream of becoming a lawyer and ultimately a Judge and fight for people who can’t fight for themselves. She is determined to do all of that with Ellie by her side.
She tells Ellie: “Shir zan. Lionesses. Us. Can’t you just see it, Ellie? Someday, you and me—we’ll do great things. We’ll live life for ourselves. And we will help others. We are cubs now, maybe. But we will grow to be lionesses. Strong women who make things happen.”
But their happiness does not live long and they have to part ways as Ellie and her mother get the opportunity to return to their previous bourgeois life. Over time, Ellie’s memories of Homa begin to fade; she is a popular student at the best girls’ high school in Iran. However, Homa’s sudden reappearance in Ellie’s world forces her to learn to make space for Homa again.
Graduating from high school together, they both join Tehran University, though in different departments yet continue to meet and spend time together along with a couple of other school friends. While Ellie is looking forward to finishing her studies and marrying the love of her life, Homa’s activism continues. As the political conflict, as well as Homa’s activism, increases one well-intentioned praise by Ellie leads to unintentional betrayal and Homa’s life is turned upside down, and the realisation pinches Ellie severely.
Written in the backdrop of political turmoil and struggle for women’s rights in Iran, the story spans several decades and through the years Homa, who is passionately devoted to “fighting” for women’s rights, finds one cause after another to continue her struggle. While she is vehemently against the supreme rule of the Shah, later, when the Shah is deposed in the revolution, Homa finds herself against the religious regime that have replaced the Shah. The change, in terms of rights, that women expected in the wake of the revolution is nowhere to be seen. The new rule fiercely restricts women’s rights, imposes dress code and mandatory hijab laws, and limits any personal prosperity for women in general. Homa sees the new regime as even worse with respect to women’s rights and their freedoms and continues to raise her voice.
A point comes when she is worried about her teenage daughter as she fears she might be arrested again, and has to seek help from her childhood friend who is well settled in America with her husband. Whether Ellie responds positively to her friend in need and what becomes of Homa, I will leave for the readers to find out and not be a spoiler.
But Kamali’s book is not just about friendship. The author addresses several themes, that are important, realistic, relatable, and timely and relevant, such as political turmoil, oppressive regimes, dreams, betrayal, class/socio-economic status, feminism, women’s rights and political activism, choices women make and choices that are available to them, education, careers, and friendship.
Interestingly, while tackling serious themes of socio-political nature, as in her previous book, Kamali also gives us a glimpse into Iranian life and culture, especially Iranian cuisine. To explain the flavours of Iranian cuisine she uses sensory words and phrases like, “The caramelised scent that infused the house as the onions sizzled…” or the “Tangy explosion of sweet and sour”. In Homa’s family kitchen, Maman Joon invites Ellie to taste her home-made pomegranate-filled pastries, known as ghotab, which Homa describes as, “The best thing you can eat.” Even later, Homa’s lunch often has Ghormeh sabzi with, Ellie notices, generous use of fenugreek.
This story of friendship, courage, and resilience follows the girls till 2022, the year when a young Iranian woman Mahsa Amini was killed in Iran by security forces for wearing improper hijab, as a result of which women and girls took to the streets to show that they had had enough. Homa writes in the Epilogue, they “bravely defy the mandatory hijab laws. They throw their headscarves into a bonfire and twirl, dancing for freedom and human rights.” They are arrested, beaten, and even killed, but the protests go on. “But people have had enough. They are tired of being told how to behave, what to say, what to wear, whom to worship. Tired of their rights diminished. Their slogan is … Women, Life, Freedom. … In Persian: ‘Zan, Zendegi, Azadi’.”
Kamali writes in the author’s note: “As I finished this book, Iran’s long quest for freedom and tragic cycles of protests and crackdown happened in real time.”
Though the story is predominantly narrated through Ellie giving her perspective, there are a few segments in Homa’s voice which give her perspective as well. Epilogue in Homa’s words as a letter to her granddaughter connects the missing time and where she had been all this while. One thing that would inspire many readers is that even when she has grown old she continues to not only believe in what the two friends taught each other since their early years but is, in fact, still taking active part in the fight for freedom to do what she believes in and staying true to herself.
The lives of Iranian women are close to Kamali’s heart and it is reflected in her books. In the author’s note, she writes: “Writing about Iranian women has been the central theme of my life. I come from a line of strong, very vocal, and opinionated Iranian women who in some instances broke new grounds, in other instances saw their lives stymied and constrained by political culture and in all cases experienced a hard line government eradicate almost overnight rights for which women had fought for decades.”
The author’s portrayal of the changing socio-political landscape of Iran during the Islamic Revolution and its aftermath with emphasis on women’s rights, shows how freedom and rights that most people take for granted are not extended to all women across the world and women all over the world (including in Pakistan) have fought for in their own time and continue to do so today.
The book aptly shows that women in Iran have always been educated and aware of their rights, and have always fought for them, though due to the present war there are no news of protests, as they probably have taken a back seat in national interest (as Iranians are very patriotic and would not like outside powers to take advantage).
The writer is a freelance journalist and tweets @naqviriz; she can be reached at naqvi59rizwana@gmail.com
All facts and information are the sole responsibility of the writer