65 pages • 2 hours read
Mahbod SerajiRooftops of Tehran
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2009A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Background
Authorial Context: Mahbod Seraji and the History of Iran
Mahbod Seraji moved to the US from Iran when he was 19. He studied at the University of Iowa and graduated with an MA in Film and Broadcasting and a PhD in Instructional Design and Technology. Back when he was a 10-year-old in Iran, Seraji fell in love with stories while sitting on his rooftop and reading a Farsi version of Jack London’s White Fang. He was enamored with the way stories could transport readers to places they had never visited (Seraji, Mahbod. “Home.” Rooftops of Tehran.)
On his website and in a note to the reader at the end of Rooftops of Tehran, Seraji says that one of the reasons he felt compelled to write the novel was to add a new perspective on how the world, especially the Western world, views Iran. By highlighting community and friendship in the lives of his characters, who are teenagers learning to navigate their emotions and lives in a politically charged environment, Seraji wanted to show that love, friendship, laughter, and grief are universal human traits and emotions. Seraji wanted to humanize the Iranian people and Persian culture, offering a counterpoint to Western media’s negative depictions of Iranians and Iran.
Seraji also aims to inform readers about American intervention in Iran’s complex history, which is often unacknowledged and misunderstood. Writing about this, Seraji draws parallels to the Iraq War and how the US government misinformed the public about the causes of the war. While many American politicians later acknowledged that the war was about access to oil and the big oil industry, during the war, the government portrayed it as a war against terrorism. Through this novel, Seraji encourages readers to find out the truth about US imperialism and interventionism in the Middle East, and specifically in Iran.
Sociohistorical Context: The Shah's Regime in Iran
Rooftops of Tehran is set in Tehran between 1973 and 1974, against the backdrop of the Shah’s regime. From 1941 until 1979, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, commonly known as the Shah, was the ruling monarch of the Imperial State of Iran. He was second and last monarch from the Pahlavi Dynasty; his father, Reza Shah, was the first monarch of the Pahlavi Dynasty and changed the nation's name from Persia to Iran in 1935. During the Iranian Revolution of 1979, the Shah was ousted from power and he fled to the US, after which Iran became the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Before he was ousted, the Shah was interested in reforming Iran into a modern society based on a Western model, and he introduced some economic, social, and political reforms to achieve this aim—this was known as the White Revolution. Between 1962 and 1975, Iran saw great economic improvement, especially in the sectors of education and industry. Oil revenues helped Iran become economically prosperous, literacy levels rose, and women enjoyed greater freedom under the Shah’s rule.
However, there was a dark side to this development, including political oppression and torture, suppression of the religious clergy, and economic inequality. The Shah used secret police called the SAVAK to curb all political dissent. The SAVAK brutally tortured and killed political activists and revolutionaries. Under the Shah, the working class remained extremely poor and uneducated and villages remained underdeveloped. The working class comprised the majority of Iran’s population at the time, with a burgeoning middle class coming into existence. Minorities like the Kurds, Turks, and Baloochis were forced to suppress their individual cultural identities and adopt the Shah’s policies regarding secularism and modernization. Similarly, the Shah’s policies alienated the clergy in Iran alongside more conservative Muslims.
As a result of the injustices committed by the Shah’s regime, dissent against the Shah continued to rise on two fronts: On the one hand, Islamists were against the Westernization and modernization of Iran, and on the other hand, communists were against the monarchy and autocracy of the Shah’s rule since it only profited the wealthy and neglected the poor and working class. In the novel, political activism and defiance against the Shah’s regime plays a major role.
Historical Context: Western Intervention in Iranian Politics
Western powers, especially Britain and the US, have a long and convoluted history with Persia, which became Iran in 1935. Within the context of Rooftops of Tehran, the following historical events play a key role.
The British were invested in Persia as early as the 1500s but became highly interested in Persian oil in the 20th century. In 1914, before World War I, the British government bought majority shares of the Anglo-Persian Oil Company (which became the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company in 1935). The British army had switched from coal to oil to keep up with the requirements of the fight against the Germans, and Persian oil was highly valuable to the British at that time. The British not only exploited the Persians for their oil, but, alongside the Russians and the Ottomans, also sought their grain. This exploitation led to a famine in Persia from 1917 to 1919, during which millions of Persians died from hunger and disease. The British also supported Reza Mirpanj, who was an officer in the Persian army. Reza overthrew the leaders of the Qajar Dynasty and became Reza Shah Pahlavi, the first monarch of the Pahlavi Dynasty.
Throughout the 1940s, there was rising opposition to British exploitation, especially with the rise of Marxism and popular nationalism. Despite the Shah’s crackdown on political dissenters, the popularity of Marxism rose and Mohammad Mossadegh, a nationalist, was elected as the Prime Minister in 1951. To regain power from the British, Mossadegh nationalized the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company, thereby expelling the British hold over the Iranian economy. The British were unhappy with this turn of events. In a bid to regain their power over the region, British agents, together with the American CIA, managed to overthrow Mossadegh, who was the first and only democratically elected Prime Minister of Iran. These events transpired in 1953, and in the Iranian elections of 1954, which were largely rigged, Mossadegh’s party was prohibited from participating.
