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A review by story_singer_101
The Lion Women of Tehran by Marjan Kamali
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.
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
Graphic: Misogyny, Sexism, Toxic relationship, and Vomit
Moderate: Miscarriage, Rape, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Religious bigotry, and War
Minor: Pandemic/Epidemic