Reviews with content warning for Sexism - The Lion Women of Tehran

This is a really striking story about generational change, what it means to fight for justice in your own way, lifelong friendships, and making peace or making waves. I felt deeply for both Homa and Ellie, and I learned so much about Iran. This book also had vivid descriptions of food that had my mouth watering, and it told a beautiful story of how food connects us and has so many memories and significance. The love story between Homa and Eleah really starts and ends with food, and it was a really meaningful throughline. It also made me very hungry, lol!

Content Warnings

story_singer_101's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

This book is easily one of the best books I’ve read this year. The prose was beautiful, the characters were realistic and had nuanced, complicated, and understandable relational dynamics, and hard, traumatic topics were discussed with sensitivity without ever being graphic in their depictions. In addition, this book had one of the best depictions of and conversations about feminism that I’ve seen in a while.

There are several common tropes that I’ve seen in stories revolving around feminism that I find horribly annoying and often offensive:
1) A character’s entire personality and arc is reduced to “I am woman, hear me roar.” Women deserve more interesting and nuanced stories than just that one plot! Do men get all the other plots and we are only allowed to have ones that are about us overcoming the limitations placed on us because of our gender? Isn’t that just making the sexism worse by reducing all women to a single story?

2) Women are portrayed as being victims of a world consisting in its entirety of either brutish and predatory men who view the women as objects and never take responsibility for their actions or clueless and naive men who don’t realize how oppressive they’re being all the time and wont listen when told otherwise (one of the tv shows I’m watching right now has a ridiculous number of men that fit into this second category, so I’m extra salty about it right now 😆).

3) Women are provided with only one option for what it means to be a strong woman—normally some kind of career-minded girlboss—and any woman who chooses to be a stay at home wife or mother is viewed as brainwashed and oppressed. Doesn’t supporting women’s rights and choices mean that women have the right to choose to be a stay at home mom just as much as they have the right to choose to pursue a competitive career? Isn’t telling women they have no choice put to pursue a career just as sexist as saying women have no choice but to be a wife and mother?

This book avoids all three tropes. It depicts both men and women as multi-dimensional characters with complex motivations and inherent human dignity. Women are portrayed as men’s equals in their capacity for greatness and their capacity to make horrible, life-altering mistakes. They’re portrayed as regular, normal people. People who deserve to be treated with the respect and care that comes from all people being equal before God. People who deserve justice for the ways those rights and that inherent dignity and equality have been stripped from them by their fellow human beings. People who have hopes and dreams and who are petty, courageous, and loving just like anyone else.

That’s a feminism I can wholeheartedly support.

Content Warnings

hannamlindsley's review

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emotional hopeful informative inspiring sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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bree_of_the_woods's review

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challenging emotional informative inspiring sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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micaelamariem's review

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challenging emotional inspiring reflective tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

This was a heartbreaking story set in the backdrop of the Iranian revolution and our two friends, one more politically minded than the other but both want reform in their own ways. The book expertly navigates the themes of coming of age, family, friendship, feminism, and even jealousy with the idea of an “evil eye.”
The book had me enraptured. It was well written, descriptive, had compelling characters that caused me to care about them despite their flaws, and taught me more about Iranian history that I’m ashamed to say I didn’t know. And the sad thing is, Iran is still facing the same unfair policies today. If I learned anything from the book, is that we must keep fighting for what’s right, no matter the cost.

Content Warnings

cdkm9's review

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challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

An amazing novel that was hard to put down. The author brings the reader along a rollercoaster of a journey through both the horrible and lighthearted/joyful moments in Ellie and Homa’s lives.

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louiepotterbook's review

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dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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