The Lion Women of Tehran

Iran is located in Southwest Asia between the countries of Iraq, Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, and Pakistan, and the Caspian and Arabian seas. Much of the country is an arid desert plateau surrounded by mountains, including the Elburz (or Alborz) Mountains that fringe its capital city of Tehran. The predominant ethnic group are Persians, and the majority language is Persian (or Farsi).

From the early seventh century BCE until the invasion of Alexander the Great in 330 BCE, the Persian Empire, ruled by the Achaemenian dynasty, was vast and powerful, the home of sophisticated architecture, culture, and administrative practices. The prevailing religion was Zoroastrianism, based on the hymns of the prophet Zarathustra (or Zoroaster), which described beliefs incorporating astrology, magic, and reverence for a single god.

The conquest by Muslim Arabs in the seventh century CE brought Arabic language and culture as well as Shi’i (or Shia) Islam, one of the two major branches of Islamic belief (the other is Sunni). The emerging kingdom blended ancient Persian culture with Arabic influences and the Islamic religion. The dynasties that ruled Iran increasingly came into conflict with European imperial powers, spurring modernization in the 18th and 19th centuries. A notable king of the Qajar dynasty, which ruled Iran from 1789 to 1925, was Naser al-Din (r.1848-1896), who was said to have around 100 women in his harem of wives and concubines; this is the king from whom Ellie’s mother claims to be descended.

A revolution in 1906 established a parliamentary government for Iran under the rule of the shah, the king. Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, who succeeded his father as shah in 1941, was protected in 1953 from a coup attempted by his prime minister, Mosaddegh, over the issue of nationalizing the country’s oil resources. The US and British governments helped oust Mosaddegh in return for access to Iran’s oil. The shah instituted a series of reforms called the White Revolution, but his autocratic rule, use of the SAVAK to police and torture dissidents, and protests against westernization made his reign increasingly unstable.

On January 16, 1979, after nearly a year of violent protests against him, the shah left Iran, and Ruhollah Khomeini, the Ayatollah, a highly placed religious cleric, returned from exile in Paris to preside over the newly declared Islamic Republic, which was guided by theocratic principles and religious belief. With the permission of then-president Jimmy Carter, the shah traveled to the United States for cancer treatments, and in an act of protest, in early November 1979, a group of armed college students attacked the US embassy in Iran and took 66 Americans hostage. The Iranian hostage crisis, as it was referred to in the US, lasted for 444 days and severely strained relations between the US and Iran.

The new republic decried the Western influence and legislated a return to conservative Islamic values. Patrols loyal to Khomeini enforced the new government’s edicts and, employing violent tactics, suppressed the political left and the intellectuals who had also demonstrated against the shah. Many civil liberties were revoked, particularly rights for women, which were viewed as immoral or too Western in the eyes of religious leaders. In 1980, the leader of Iraq, Saddam Husseini, began an eight-year war on Iran, largely over territorial disagreements.

In recent years, Iran has continued to struggle with internal protests over cultural and economic policies. The country also continues to have tense relations with the US over its policy of pursuing nuclear enrichment in contravention of international treaties.

In September 2022, Iran’s morality police in Tehran arrested a visiting Kurdish Iranian woman, Mahsa Jina Amini, on the grounds that she was not wearing a hijab, or head covering. Amini’s death in police custody, due to what witnesses described as a brutal beating for protesting arrest, sparked widespread protests among many Iranians who had long wanted reform. Taking up the slogan of “Woman, Life, Freedom,” the protesters agitated for more rights for women and minorities. Iran’s security forces and government officials responded with force, killing hundreds of protestors, imprisoning thousands more, and increasing penalties for civil violations, including the death penalty.