The Lion Women of Tehran

Tarof is a practice of civility in Iranian culture and appears in the book as a form of etiquette governing circumstances of hospitality. When a host offers food or drink, tarof obliges a guest to initially decline, out of politeness or humility. The host is then pressed to offer again, and the guest may eventually, after establishing the sincerity of the gesture, accept the hospitality. Engaging in the tarof dance, as Ellie calls it, creates ground for a relationship, such as friendship, but in the novel, it can also suggest unease with a situation. When Ellie calls on Homa after she is released from prison the first time, Abdol offers tea. Ellie eventually accepts and remarks:

For a while we did the Persian tarof dance where he was self-deprecating and apologetic for his tea and I insisted it was the best I’d ever had. We did our polite formalities, no matter what. We were raised to be that way. We were raised to keep up appearances (180).

Abandoning the tarof dance and accepting a gift becomes a way to mark deep friendships that transcend etiquette or formalities. When she is first invited to Homa’s house as a child, Ellie is so hungry for nurturing and the sense of family there that she accepts the ghotab without any formal protest. In her apartment in New York City, when she pours tea out of the teapot she bought because it reminded her of Homa, Ellie again avoids the tarof dance and engages with her friend directly. Setting aside this ritual shows that these bonds are not governed by etiquette but by deep and strong emotion.

The pink notebook symbolizes Homa’s unwavering loyalty and affection for Ellie. Despite their physical separation and the diverging paths their lives take, Homa’s choice to preserve and fill the notebook with her mother’s recipes represents her enduring connection to Ellie. Through this act, Homa illustrates that true friendship can transcend time and distance. The pink notebook serves as a tangible reminder of their friendship, and Homa’s careful stewardship of it shows her commitment to their shared history and values. It also contrasts with Ellie’s choice to put aside the bird necklace, symbolizing Ellie’s drifting away from their relationship and the values they once shared.

The pink notebook is a symbol of the deeper contrast between Homa and Ellie, representing Homa’s steadfastness in the face of external forces and Ellie’s gradual assimilation and conformity. The pink notebook reflects the broader themes of Bonds of Friendship and Loyalty and Jealousy, Guilt, and Redemption, as it becomes a key element in demonstrating how each woman navigates their relationship, their memories, and their personal values across time.

The evil eye is a magical way of explaining bad luck: The envy or jealousy of others, manifesting in their gaze, can destroy someone’s good fortune. This is an ancient superstition shared across many cultures, which Ellie’s mother believes in. In the novel, the evil eye comes to symbolize the destructive nature of jealousy or envy—feelings that can also manifest in harmful acts. Ellie’s mother attributes the evil eye to her first husband’s death and her resulting loss of wealth and status, even though she later admits she was unhappy in the marriage. Ellie fears she has turned an evil eye on Homa through her jealousy of Homa’s family; she fears harming Homa’s loving birth family and Homa’s daughter, Bahar. When Ellie is unable to bear children herself, she expresses the fear to Mehrdad that her envy took on a physical force through the evil eye, driving Homa’s family apart in the form of the secret police, when she confided in Sousan’s husband, the colonel. Mehrdad recognizes this fear as a dimension of Ellie’s guilt. The evil eye recedes as a symbol after Ellie comes to terms with her actions, gains Homa’s forgiveness, and forges her own path in life.