The Lion Women of Tehran, by Marjan Kamali (Simon & Schuster)

This is a novel about Iranian women whose plight, I suspect, has been overtaken in Western minds, certainly mine, by the virtual cancellation of women in Afghanistan.

Yet Iranian women have recently made the Western news cycle, specifically with the killing of Mahsa Jina Amini by security forces in September 2022 for wearing her hijab incorrectly.

This appalling incident led to women and girls taking to the streets of Iran in protest, which filled many Iranians in the diaspora, including author Marjan Kamali, with hope once again that something might change. But no. In an author’s note she writes: “I watched as the women and men of Iran rose up to fight for freedom and were quashed by security forces.”

The Lion Women of Tehran is Kamali’s third novel. She says writing about Iranian women’s rights has been a central theme of her life. She comes from a long line of “strong, very vocal, and opinionated Iranian women who in some instances broke new ground… in other instances saw their lives stymied and constrained by a patriarchal culture, and in all cases experienced a hard-line government eradicate almost overnight rights for which women had fought for decades”.

But beginning the review this way I am probably doing the novel an injustice, because while it certainly has political themes, it is primarily a wonderful story about the power of women’s friendship.

The two women at the centre of the tale are Elaheh and Homa, who meet as seven-year-olds in Tehran.

Elaheh has spent her life in an upmarket part of town, but when her father dies in 1950, her mother is forced to move to a much less salubrious area. Her father’s brother, Uncle Massoud, takes charge of the family, supporting them financially as her mother, descended from kings and queens, refuses to sully her lineage – or her soft white hands – by working.

She is also not keen to see her daughter play with the children in the local alleys, fearing their “peasant-like” ways will rub off on her. But the little girl can’t wait to go to school where she hopes desperately to find a friend.

And she does. Homa comes from a working class family headed by a communist father who is anti the Shah. Mother absolutely does not approve, but Ellie is enchanted by the family. There’s a cool kitchen where fabulous food is cooked, a loving mum and dad, and Homa also has two young siblings.

Ellie sometimes dreams that if something happens to her mother, Homa’s family will absorb her.

A few years later, when the girls are 10, Homa persuades Ellie to bunk off school for half a day and go with her to Tehran’s Grand Bazaar, a place Ellie’s mother has forbidden (it’s common and full of smelly people and germs).

They end up in a courtyard where Homa uses her birthday money to buy them each an ice cream. Kamali certainly knows how to write about food. Here’s what the ice creams were like: “The flavour of vanilla infused with rose water and saffron burst into my mouth. The chewiness of the wafer contrasted with the smoothness of the ice cream. To my delight, there were also chunks of frozen heavy cream tucked in – the richness a surprise.”

During the illicit ice cream break, the girls talk about their future. Homa announces she wants to be a judge, while Ellie says she wants to be a mother. Homa’s father has told her that both men and women can contribute to a country, and Homa suggests she and Ellie could be the first generation of women working in Iran.

Homa adds: “You know what we’ll both become when we grow up? … Shir zan. Lionesses… We are cubs now, maybe. But we’ll grow to be lionesses. Strong women who make things happen.”

Things of course don’t go according to plan. Mother agrees to marry Uncle Massoud, and she and Ellie move back uptown, where Ellie goes to a private school. The girls lose touch for a while, and then one day, at the beginning of high school, Homa pops up in Ellie’s class, having won a bursary.

Soon they are inseparable again, and Homa’s ambition spurs Ellie on, so that they both get coveted places at Tehran University. They meet the men who become their loves, science student Mehrdad for Ellie, geography student Abdol for Homa.

But politics are swirling in the background, as resistance grows against the Shah. And Homa is in the thick of it, planning protest marches, distributing pamphlets.

Spies are everywhere. You have to be careful what you say and to whom.  Devastatingly, Homa is arrested, and a distraught Ellie thinks she might have been carelessly responsible.

Everything changes. Homa’s life is never the same. Mehrdad gets a chance to work in the US for two years, and he and Ellie leave Iran.

Then one day, after virtually no contact between the friends for 19 years, Ellie in New York gets a letter from Homa in Tehran. After some polite words and news about her daughter, Homa ends: “Can you call me, Ellie? Please. I need to speak to you. It’s urgent.”

And everything changes again.

This is a great story, and one that shines a light on the lion women who never stop fighting.

In her author’s note at the end, Kamali says she is neither a scholar nor a historian, but she is a storyteller. “For as long as they have lived, Iranian women have known that power. It was with story that Scheherazade kept herself alive, and it is through story… that so many of us find solace, refuge, hope and understanding.”

• The Lion Women of Tehran was an Exclusive Books top read for February.