The Lion Women of Tehran by Marjan Kamali Sanjana kicks off KBC Season 3 with a novel about two contrasting women—Ellie and Homa—navigating 1950s Iran during political upheaval. Two fundamentally different women shape each other's lives. Ellie, reserved and fear-driven, is drawn to Homa's confidence. Homa, fierce and politically active, finds in Ellie a source of empathy. The novel explores freedom's fragility, what constitutes a good life, and how ego shapes how we judge others' choices. How we perceive others' lives is filtered through our own lens. Ego is pervasive. Homa's rare lack of ego—doing things for principle—makes her remarkable. Stories humanize history more than academic accounts. Freedom must be actively fought for. Roundtable discussion questions: How does your network influence the way you perceive the world? How can you adopt courage and refusal to break in your daily life? How do you define a good life? Brain Fizz: 4.5/5.
KBC SEASON 3, EPISODE 1: "THE LION WOMEN OF TEHRAN"
Host: Kirti Mutatkar
Guest: Sanjana Giduthuri
Book: The Lion Women of Tehran by Marjan Kamali
Rating: 4.5/5 Brain Fizz
Sanjana kicks off KBC Season 3 with Marjan Kamali's "The Lion Women of Tehran," a novel centered on the friendship between two contrasting women—Ellie and Homa—navigating 1950s Iran during political upheaval.
Female Friendship & Personal Transformation
Ellie, reserved and fear-driven, is drawn to Homa's confidence and authenticity. Homa, fierce and politically active, finds in Ellie a source of empathy. Their friendship becomes a mirror—forcing each woman to confront what the other represents.
Freedom & Its Fragility
Neither woman experiences true freedom. Under the Shah, Westernization was imposed; after the revolution, restrictions took a different form. The novel asks: What does freedom mean when society dictates the terms?
Defining a Good Life
A central insight: Who decides what constitutes a good life? Sanjana reframes the assumption that Homa's activist life is "better" than Ellie's conventional path. A life is well-lived if you stick to your values and avoid major regrets—ego shapes how we judge others' choices.
The Title: "Lion Women"
All three main characters—Ellie, Homa, and Ellie's narcissistic mother—embody the definition of lion women: courageous people who refuse to be broken.
Ellie: Reserved, security-seeking, driven by societal approval. Her insecurity stems from her mother's narcissism. She carries guilt about escaping to America while Homa stayed in danger.
Homa: Fierce, politically engaged, mission-driven. She acts from conviction, not recognition. Her rare lack of ego—doing things for principle—makes her remarkable. She protects Ellie by cutting off their friendship when it becomes dangerous.
Ellie's Mother: Complex—narcissistic and materialistic, yet driven by trauma and love. Her journey reflects how trauma gets passed down through generations.
Sanjana praised Kamali's accessible, descriptive writing style. Her depictions of Persian cuisine and life in Iran feel immersive. The novel interweaves personal stories with historical moments, creating a rich tapestry.
Brain Fizz: 4.5/5
Reread: Probably not, though she'd read a film adaptation.
This episode sets the tone for KBC Season 3: thoughtful, character-driven discussions that challenge how we judge others' choices and define success. The friendship between Ellie and Homa becomes a lens through which readers can examine their own relationships, values, and the role ego plays in how we live.
Host and Creator: Kirti Mutatkar
Guest: Sanjana Giduthuri
Show Editor: Aniket Mutatkar
Logo & Design: Smitha Rau
Please join the KBC community by sending an email to kirtimutatkar7@gmail.com. Space for the virtual roundtables is limited to 12 participants and it's first come, first served. Please sign up ASAP to reserve your spot.
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Host: Kirti Mutatkar
Guest: Sanjana Giduthuri
Book: The Lion Women of Tehran by Marjan Kamali
Kirti: This is really exciting starting season three of KBC. I didn’t imagine when I started this a year and a half ago that I’d ever do a season three, but here we are. Today I have Sanjana with me as a guest. Sanjana, excited to be on season three?
Sanjana: Yeah, super excited. And to be the first episode—I’m like, hopefully it’s a good premiere of season three.
Kirti: This is season three’s first episode, and to have you here is super exciting. When I asked you to start my season three with me, you had some thoughts about which book we should read. Why did you suggest this book?
Sanjana: I’d read another book by the same author called The Stationery Shop, and I really liked her writing style—how she makes even mundane moments seem exciting and is very descriptive. But I also liked the themes. The last book was more of a romance novel set in 1950s Iran. This is another version of that time period, but more focused on female friendship. Female friendship is really interesting because some friendships have so much emotional intimacy that when they end or have disagreements, the weight can feel like a romantic relationship breaking up. I love reading stories like that.
Kirti: We didn’t give the name of the book though.
Sanjana: Right. This book is called The Lion Women of Tehran. It covers the friendship of two girls based in 1950s Iran. I thought it would be an interesting new version of a book I’d previously read.
Kirti: It was interesting. You suggested this book, so I read it and also read The Stationery Shop after. We kind of debated which would be better. Was it the friendship aspect that made you want to discuss this one more?
Sanjana: Yeah. Each character had so much depth in this book. I thought there’d be more interesting topics to discuss.
Kirti: The author, Marjan Kamali, grew up in Iran and came to the US. It’s partly about the friendships she had in Iran that she missed when she came here. What attracted you to this friendship?
Sanjana: I thought it was interesting how much they learned from each other and how their life perspectives influenced how their lives ended up. To give context: there are two characters—Ellie and Homa. Ellie is more reserved and leads her life through fear. She’s always wondering what people will think and follows societal standards. She comes from a background where her father died when she was young, and her mother is narcissistic and fear-driven, always talking about the evil eye and jealousy. So she comes from a reserved nature.
Homa is on the other side. She’s fierce, bold, and really cares about what’s happening in Iran and how things can be better. She doesn’t think about herself as often but focuses on how she can be part of change.
It’s interesting how they’re drawn to each other despite being so different. Ellie is drawn to Homa because Homa is so sure of herself, confident, and unapologetically herself—something Ellie has never been able to be. And I think Homa is drawn to Ellie because she’s empathetic and realizes there’s discomfort within her that she wants to help improve. They’re so different, yet have such a rich friendship.
Kirti: That’s true. When you think of two different people—if Ellie had lived without Homa, she would have gone in a very different direction. She was used to the norm of what was happening. She wasn’t even thinking from a political standpoint about what was happening in the outside world. She was so focused on herself and her smaller community. Then this new person comes in and opens her eyes. That gets you thinking: in our lives, not just in friendships, but with anyone who comes into our life—they can change your direction. You could be going in one direction, and someone says something and you make a right or left turn that changes your life based on that impact.
Sanjana: Definitely. That’s one of the reasons I wanted to read this book. I could read up on what happened in Iran in this time period, but it’s so different to learn about it through the perspective of someone who was there through storytelling. It humanizes a situation that would otherwise be just an intellectual topic. But there were actual people affected by it and this is how they led their lives. They weren’t miserable the whole time. They still had the small joys of skipping school, going to the market. They’re not that different from us, essentially.
Kirti: When we’re young and even as young adults, we go through our lives with our usual activities—movies, hanging out with friends. From a political standpoint, bigger things happening don’t even impact you. You have the small joys of life and you live it. Everything around you isn’t impacting your day-to-day life. It’s interesting to know the history of Iran and what happened there, but on the backdrop of these two girls and how it impacted them. Things start changing. I think it gives you a very different perspective, especially from a female perspective. If these two had been male, it would be very different. Do you relate more because of that?
Sanjana: Yeah, definitely. I think freedom is something we take for granted. Growing up, I never thought it could be a question whether women can have basic fundamental rights. But in Iran they felt the same way in the 1950s that we feel now. But then things went backwards in time. I think freedom is just so fragile. Unless there are people fighting for it, it won’t happen. There are so many parallels to the current day world, even where we think we’re so modern and far in the future. They probably felt that way 200 years ago, and then things changed so quickly.
Kirti: That’s true. We assume that because this is our current day and we’re at the latest point of history, we know way more than they did back then or we’re way more advanced. But that’s not necessarily true in every case. Things we think will move forward can actually go in reverse. Politically, around us, we can be moving backwards instead of marching forward. It happened in Iran all the time.
Kirti: When you look at the friendship between Homa and Ellie, one ended up staying in Iran and the other came to the US. They went in different directions. Do you feel Ellie had a negative impact on Homa’s life? Did she impact Homa at all?
Sanjana: I don’t think Ellie changed Homa’s personality. I think she just made her more cautious. Homa was very reactive and didn’t think before she engaged in her advocacy, even at the expense of her own safety. Ellie being the complete opposite didn’t change Homa from going out in the world and trying to change things, but I think it made her take a step back. Ellie definitely played a role in how Homa’s life ended up.
For context, Homa gets put in jail because of Ellie. She really plays a big role in Homa’s perspective because I think the old Homa would have said, “Everything will be fine. I’ll still have you in my life.” But because Homa was worried about Ellie’s safety, she cut her off completely. I think that gave her a sense of fear when it comes to protecting the people in her life. Ellie gave her that.
Kirti: Towards the end, you realize what a big person Homa was, right? The reason she cuts off the friendship is because she’s protecting her friend, not because she’s upset with her. And the friend takes it as maybe she’s upset with me because of the things I led to.
Sanjana: Yeah. And the reason she reaches back out is because now she’s in a place where she’s safe—she’s in America—and she needs support.
Kirti: Right. Because when she apologizes, Homa’s response is basically: why would you apologize? She didn’t even think there was anything wrong with what her friend did.
Kirti: Since we read both The Stationery Shop and The Lion Women of Tehran, do you find similarities?
Sanjana: The author kept a lot of the main political moments the same—the background and backstory. For example, the movie theater that was burned in Iran happens in both books. So she keeps a lot of those major moments. And in The Stationery Shop, there’s a made-up stationery shop that’s referenced in The Lion Women of Tehran, which was cool.
Kirti: She connects the two. From a political standpoint, Iran went through a lot, but looking at it from the two girls’ perspectives, they never really experienced true freedom. During the Shah’s time, there was Westernization, but that was also imposed on them. You had to be Western. But the whole idea of what a female wants to do—maybe you want to wear a hijab or not—that’s your choice. Why would someone else tell you what to do? That inherently didn’t change.
Sanjana: Yeah, for sure. I thought it was interesting hearing different perspectives on the Shah regime from so many characters, but it didn’t feel like that was the main purpose of the novel. She was just trying to show what it was like to live during this time and how you navigate change.
Kirti: I think one friend gets away and comes to the US with a sense of guilt because she got to have a better life than the person left behind. What are your thoughts on that?
Sanjana: Ellie has always lived a more privileged life, which is why she was never very incentivized to do anything, even in Iran. Homa helped her see that by providing the opposite perspective. I don’t think Homa would have wanted to leave Iran and be in the US. For her, freedom was being there and fighting for her rights. But for Ellie, freedom was leaving to some extent and living her life. When she moved to the US, she had to make other adjustments—she didn’t finish college, worked as a salesperson at a department store. When she was friends with Homa, she had more aspirations. But maybe at her core, that wasn’t her motivation. When she got to the US, she reverted to being a good woman of the household, which I think was always her desire.
Kirti: When I was reflecting on this, I realized something. The author carries a sense of guilt, but that’s from her perspective on what she thinks life is. Who says coming to the US and being an author is better than Homa fighting for her rights in Iran? Maybe Homa wasn’t even craving this life. She was living her life. So who gets to say which is a better life? I don’t know.
Sanjana: And I think that’s why the title is so interesting—The Lion Women of Tehran. I feel like they’re all lion women in some way: Ellie, Homa, and even Ellie’s mom, who’s narcissistic, but in her own way was battling the society she was in and trying to make a good life for her daughter. In their own ways, they were being lion women. The book defines a lion woman as someone who’s courageous and refuses to be broken. In their individual ways, they’re all doing that.
Kirti: Nobody can tell them what to do. That’s the definition. Even the mom—I mean, she’s a narcissist, materialistic, but she was fighting her fight. She was a lion woman too.
Sanjana: Yeah. She was more driven from fear, but she was still trying to fight for a better life for herself and her daughter. Even if you didn’t agree with her decisions, they came from a place of courageousness.
Kirti: What about the jealousy that Ellie feels for Homa all her life?
Sanjana: On paper, Ellie had way more than Homa—money, a nice house, a boyfriend, popularity at school. By Ellie’s definition of success, she should be really happy. But Homa didn’t need any of those things to be happy because she was just so confident in herself. That’s why Ellie’s so drawn to her and continuously jealous of her—Homa stays true to that and never changes. Meanwhile, Ellie has all these things and still lacks that confidence.
Kirti: She’s insecure, and that plays into it. She admits it herself. She knows her flaws.
Sanjana: I think the reason she’s able to see her flaws is because she has Homa as a comparison. Ellie gets a lot of her characteristics from how she was raised and the ideas her mom put in her head. If she hadn’t met someone so different, she might have believed that’s just the way the world is.
Kirti: Is there anybody in your life who has changed the way you think? A friend?
Sanjana: Yeah. I’ve met friends from different parts of the world, and hearing how they view politics today and how their families are affected has definitely changed my perception. Growing up in America, the people I met in elementary school through high school had very similar lives and perspectives. Meeting someone where I just would have no idea what their perspective was without talking to them was really interesting.
Kirti: That’s true. It’s like you were saying—opening up your circle of people you interact with. Where we grew up, it’s a little like a bubble. This exposure really helps because everyone has their own perspective on stories. That’s why I love reading books—if you don’t meet people in person, you actually meet them through books. You fall in love with a Homa when you read about her. Indirectly, she influences the way we think about things. Look at this brave young girl, 20 years old, fighting for it. The stakes were so high for her, but she still continued. That was very inspiring.
Sanjana: And I thought it was interesting how the story ends with her as an old woman still at a protest. For Ellie, she’d probably hope at the end of her life she was peaceful and happy at home. But for someone like Homa, she literally can’t look away from injustice. That’s the ideal state for her—she’s living her fullest.
Kirti: She’s even at old age, still living her fullest. That’s right.
Kirti: When we talk about books, I talk about the brain fizz factor—essentially, what happens when you read a book that changes the way you think. That’s the highest rating. Where does this book fall for you? Between one and five?
Sanjana: Maybe like a 4.5.
Kirti: So it changed a few things you knew to be true?
Sanjana: Yeah. Or at least reinforced them in some ways. It was like an additional data point.
Kirti: Would you reread this book?
Sanjana: Maybe. I feel like I don’t usually reread books. If it was made into a movie, I would immediately. I would definitely read other books by this author. But in general, probably not.
Kirti: What did you think of her writing style? Do you enjoy it?
Sanjana: I thought it was really easy to follow. Especially when she describes food—Persian cuisine—it literally makes my mouth water. That just speaks to how good her writing is.
Kirti: It’s interesting that she grew up in the US. I think she came here when she was ten. But the way she describes life in Iran, you actually feel like you’re there. You experience the holidays and everything she describes. Her writing is very, very good.
Sanjana: For the roundtable discussion, I feel like there are so many different directions we could take this. One is: How does your network of friends and family influence the way you perceive the world? Do you think you have any blind spots in your perspective?
Another one is: The title of this book is “Lion Woman.” You don’t have to be a woman to be a lion woman, but how can you adopt that more often in your daily life? Or do you feel like you’re already adopting that?
Kirti: Those are good points. I like the idea of how we define what a good life is. If I look at somebody else’s life through the lens of how I’ve lived my life or what I think success is, I’m making a judgment about whether their life is good. That seems off because why would I define another person’s life through my lens? Maybe that person, looking through their lens, could be saying something different.
It’s very interesting how you define success or living life to the fullest. What does that really mean? When it’s all said and done, I think those are things you reflect on. Have I lived my life to the fullest? Am I still living it to the fullest? I don’t know. I actually felt like Homa’s life—she’s still doing what she’s passionate about. So I’d be more jealous of her than someone living a privileged life. So how do you define that?
Sanjana: Yeah, because I don’t even think you can put a concrete definition on it. At the end of your life, do you feel like you stuck to your morals and values? Do you have a network of people that you love or that loved you? For some people, they have one mission. For Homa, she didn’t care if anyone saw what she was doing. For her, that was enough. Versus for someone like Ellie, who’s status-driven, which isn’t inherently bad. A lot of people care about that. Did she hit all the milestones? So yeah, it’s tricky.
Kirti: That’s so true. When Homa didn’t do things for other people, she did it for herself. She wasn’t doing it for likes or fame. She just did it because it was natural to her. That’s what Ellie was so jealous of—that Homa lived life for herself, not for what others said or did. That didn’t impact her.
Sanjana: I don’t think one is more right than the other. I think as long as you don’t have major regrets—and even if you do, they don’t cloud all the positive moments in your life—then I feel like your life’s well lived.
Kirti: What you just said changed my mind. From an egotistical standpoint, I was thinking I liked Homa better because she lived this way. But who says Ellie being materialistic or wanting status is a bad thing?
Sanjana: Yeah, exactly. It’s not a bad thing.
Kirti: But you just changed my perspective in the last five seconds. I’m like, that’s true. Because who says one is better than the other?
Sanjana: It depends on how you perceive your life. If you let influences affect you, that’s one thing. But if you don’t, it just depends on how you perceive your own life.
Kirti: That’s interesting. It got me thinking—we get so egotistical like, oh, I’m looking at it through my lens. Even in this podcast over the last 20 minutes, there was a lot of ego from my end.
Sanjana: I think it’s natural. I’m so curious if it’s because of how someone is born or how they’re raised. I wonder if Homer’s dad had similar political leanings to her. Maybe she had someone to look up to that was that way.
Kirti: That’s true. Because even there was a conversation where Ellie’s feeling less than Homer because she feels, oh, I don’t do all these things. Homer does. Even from an ego standpoint. But for Homer, she’s not looking down on her friend. She’s just very matter-of-fact: okay, you do this and I do that. You go to parties. I just don’t like to do it. It’s not coming from ego saying one is better. Is that humanly possible? I don’t know.
Sanjana: I think it’s possible. It’s just really rare. It’s a rare breed of human where comparison isn’t second nature.
Kirti: I wonder if you go through a day or a week and think about how many things we do that are driven by ego.
Sanjana: Sure. Especially where we live and in the circles we live in. It’s probably more common than in other places.
Kirti: This book will be a great discussion book for the roundtable because lots of topics come up—what makes a good mom or a bad mom. Do you think Ellie’s mom was good?
Sanjana: It’s interesting because Ellie at some point wished her mom died so Homa’s parents could take her over. So she had a lot of qualms. But good or bad—she was trying her best based on her own lived experiences. Everything she did came from a place of love, but it caused a lot of harm. I feel like there are moms who don’t lead with love. That’s when you’re truly a bad parent. If things you’re doing aren’t driven by love. But Ellie’s mom caused harm but was driven by love. She lived so many traumatic experiences that she’s projecting onto her daughter, but she also doesn’t know any better. So it’s tricky.
Kirti: The way she reacts to some of the things her daughter does makes you feel like she’s not a good mom. But deep down, she was also trying her best.
Sanjana: Yeah. And as Ellie got older and had conversations with her mom, she realized that. But when you’re a kid, especially, it’s not your job to compensate for that.
Kirti: Based on the two books by this author that we read, do you think she’ll write another book?
Sanjana: I hope so. It would be really interesting to write from the perspective of an American growing up now where everything from that time period feels like a distant past. You hear rumblings from parents or grandparents, but you feel disconnected from it. Maybe someone rediscovering their history that way?
Kirti: She’s a good writer, so I’m sure she’ll come up with something.
Sanjana: Because at the end of this book, she gets into the future generations—Homa’s daughter and then granddaughter. A book from their perspectives could be interesting.
Kirti: That’s true. The kids of these moms growing up—wherever they grew up, whether Iran or here. How does that happen? That generation would be pretty cool to see. The Stationery Shop reminded me of The Notebook, where they’re reflecting back on their love story. They meet at an old age home and reflect. I connected that. It would make a great movie too.
Sanjana: Yeah. A short TV series would be cool.
Kirti: Yeah. So cool. This was really exciting, Sanjana. I’m excited that you’re kicking off my season three, and I’m looking forward to everybody joining the roundtable discussion later.
Sanjana: Thanks for having me. Excited for the discussion.
Kirti: Thanks.