The Lion Women of Tehran

Ellie walks with her friends, Niloo and Sousan, to Café Andre for lunch. Her friends tease Ellie about seeing Mehrdad, the boy she is attracted to. The girls are about to begin 12th grade at their private girls’ school, Reza Shah Kabir High School. Ellie is 17, beautiful, and popular, and her childhood with Homa feels far away. After the coup that ousted Prime Minister Mossadegh in 1953, Ellie’s mother taught her not to say anything overtly political that might cause conflict or bring her under suspicion. After their parting, Ellie visited Homa twice, and they wrote letters but eventually fell out of touch. Around seventh grade, Ellie stopped wearing the bird necklace. She enjoys her westernized, bourgeois, secular lifestyle, though she reflects, “I was someone entirely new and exhausting” (67).

Ellie recalls the end of 11th grade, when she first met Mehrdad at Café Andre. Her family celebrated the Norwuz, the Iranian new year, with the usual rituals, one of which was preparing sabzeh, sprouted lentil seeds. They pack a picnic for Sizdah Bedar and find a spot near the Karaj River. Ellie goes to the water to wish for a husband and throw in her sabzeh, as tradition dictates, and there she meets Mehrdad.