Sky of Red Poppies
Set against the backdrop of a politically divided 1960's Iran under the rule of the Shah, Sky of Red Poppies is a novel about culture, politics and the redeeming power of friendships. Roya, the daughter of a prominent family, is envious of the fierce independence of her religious classmate Shireen. But Shireen has secrets of her own. Together, Roya and Shireen contend with becoming the women they want to be and, in doing so, make decisions that will cause their tragic undoing.
About Zoe Ghahremani
Zoe Ghahremani is the author of Sky of Red Poppies and Shareek-e-Gham (in Persian). A lifelong writer, she also enjoys painting. She’s a poet/writer both in Persian and English. A long-term immigrant, she draws from her Iranian-American culture and transmits a fresh mixture to her readers. Her work has won several awards, including the 2005 California Stories and first prize at SBWC for best fiction 2004. Her articles and short stories have appeared in US and ethnic magazines.
Following decades in Chicago where she taught at Northwestern University Dental School while practicing dentistry in Evanston, IL, she relocated to California in 2000 and became a full-time writer. She serves on the board of San Diego Writers, Ink and is a member of the Association of Iranian-American Writers. Her next novel, The Moon Daughter, will be published in 2012. She is working on her third.
"My parents picked the name Zohreh for their seventh child and, with love and respect to their memory, I honored that for the first half of this life. On the second half, friends simplified my name to Zoe.
"While Zohreh is the Persian name of the brightest and longest lasting star of the night – Venus – Zoe in Greek simply means life. Had I been given a choice at birth, I think I would have favored my new name. Not only is it short, uncomplicated, and easy to remember, I think overall it suits me best. Indeed, while stardom is the furthest from me, life is what I am all about.
"The daughter of a tribal man from Khorasan, Rafi Khan Khazai, I became a Ghahremani when I married my husband of thirty years, Gary – whose name is also an abbreviation of his given name, Ghahreman. We have three children, Lilly is a lawyer/business executive, Susan – who prefers to be called Susie – is a great artist and Cyrus is a musician. They alone make life interesting and definitely worth living.
"Having abandoned the career of Children’s Dentistry, both in Practice and years of teaching at Northwestern University, it no longer matters if people call me Doctor G. or Dr. K. or doctor anything. I am simply Zoe: a writer, an artist, a gardener. No matter how short life may be, I intend to discover its width and celebrate all it has to offer."
Visit the author at: www.zoeghahremani.com.
Reviews
East County Magazine, November 2010 (San Diego). By Dennis Moore
Zohreh Ghahremani, an artist, writer and gardener residing in the San Diego area, has written a stunning and poetic tale about two girls coming of age in Iran during the 1960s. The theme of the book questions how much can a friendship change your life? Set against the backdrop of a nation forced to mute its profound identity, Sky of Red Poppies is a novel about culture, politics and the redeeming power of friendships.
This book takes us on a fascinating journey through the landscapes of Iran, providing a glimpse into a far too often overlooked side of Iranian culture and history.
The central characters in Ghahremani's book are two schoolgirls from different sides of the track in Iranian culture and society, but with an undying love and respect for each other's differences.
Roya Afshar, born of an affluent family in Iran, at 16, was curious about many things, but the activities of the Shah's secret police weren't among them. That would serve her well up until her graduation from high school. By contrast, her friend from the other side of the track, Shireen Payan, had more of a questioning and defiant approach to the Shah's reign. Perhaps, Payan's Muslim faith and practices contributed to this defiance, along with her high school teacher, Jenab Elmi.
Beginning with a casual friendship between these two schoolgirls coming of age in a politically divided 1960s Iran under rule of the Shah, Roya, the daughter of a prominent family, is envious of the fierce independence of her religious classmate Shireen. But Shireen has secrets of her own. Together, Roya and Shireen contend with becoming the women they want to be and, in doing so, make decisions that will cause their tragic undoing. In the unraveling of family secrets, Roya begins to question how she was raised and how to become the person she wishes to be.
Iranian culture and society was such, as indicated in Ghahremani's book, that the father of the young student, Afshar, felt a need to caution his daughter about discussing matters of the Shah's secret police in public. The overall theme of the book would later explain why. Afshar would witness one of her female classmates actually being forcibly dragged out of her school by this secret police, SAVAK, never to be seen or heard from again.
Steeped in Iranian and Muslim tradition, Afshar's friend and classmate, Shireen Payan, came to school wrapped in her "chador," the dark cloth that covered her head to toe. This was emblematic of Payan's faith and religious practices, whereas Afshar had none.
The turning point was the coming of age of these two female classmates, when Payan would acquire a husband and be so enamored by his beliefs, however militant and defiant, that Payan would have to follow suit. Demonstrations by the students against the Shah's regime were occurring continually, and Payan and her husband found themselves in the middle of it. Of course, the Shah's secret police was not going to react to dissent as we might here in America. Along with Payan and her husband's involvement in this dissent, it turns out that Payan's and Afshar's high school teacher, that they both revered, Mr. Elmi, was one of the protaganists against the government.
The poppies represented a poetic and central theme throughout the book, as Afshar's affluent father would actually be in communion with the head of the Shah's secret police, unbeknowest to her, having him over to engage in opium smoking, along with other well connected members of Iranian society. This connection would later serve the young Roya Afshar well later, when she would challenge her father's edict.
The poppies and Afshar had a connection, from a poetic standpoint. Of all the flowers, regardless of the variety and array of colors that made the family garden so spectacular, it was this fragile bloom that seemed to come closest to her heart.
The author states in her book that each day, the poppies seemed to reflect Afshar's own feelings of joy, sorrow, even fear. They spoke of hope, yet the danger hidden in their essence--that mysterious scent of opium--frightened her. Poetically speaking, to Afshar, the poppies rose from the mud in their garden with pride, yet bent their heads in modesty. And, although she didn't know a happier shade of red, they reminded her of sorrow.
Shireen's militancy and defiance to the Shah would land her in prison, and being subjected to torture while there. Tragedy to other members of her family would occur as a result of this militancy and defiance.
In the end, in coming to the support and defense of her friend Shireen, Roya would alienate herself from her opium smoking father, and be forcefully exiled to America, where she would reunite with a college classmate and start a new life.
Modern day newspaper headlines put Ghahremani's story in perspective. A November 16, 2010 story in the San Diego Union-Tribune reports of an Iranian woman sentenced to death by stoning for adultery in which the woman, Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, calls herself a "sinner." Although by our standards, we may look upon this as archaic, Ghahremani's book helps us to understand such Islamic rulings.
In another story in the November 23, 2010 edition of the Union-Tribune, Asia Bibi, 45, an agricultural worker and mother of five, became the first woman to be sentenced to death for blasphemy, according to human rights groups. Although this happened in Pakistan, it underscores the clash of religion and tradition demonstrated in Ghahremani's book. Adding pressure to the Pakistani authorities to overturn the sentence of Bibi, Pope Benedict XVI appealed recently for the woman to be freed unconditionally.
The mere fact of being a Christian or an Ahmedi in Pakistan makes an individual vulnerable to the Draconian blasphemy laws in this Islamic society, similar to the theme of Ghahremani's book.
There are many twists and turns in Sky of Red Poppies, a book revealing a clash of cultures and abounding with intrigue, which I highly recommend.
Peyk Magazine, March 2011. By Shay Dinata-Hanson
A former contributor to Peyk, Zohreh Ghahremani has authored a compelling fictional novel about school friends turning into women at a politically charged time in Iran under the Shah. Set in the 1960s, the novel follows the lives of Shireen and Roya, bright teenage girls full of hope, conviction and idealism. However, after Savak (the Shah’s secret police) enters their school and forcibly removes a fellow student who then disappears, our protagonist, Roya, begins to realize that, in stark contrast to the promise of the Shah’s White Revolution, their lives were more like the red poppies that, despite their harsh surroundings, continued to endure and bloom spectacularly every year without fail on the mud roof of the school’s greenhouse. Roya forms an intuitive unease about a constant yet undefined threat to her personal and school life. Her father will not have Savak mentioned in the house and acts as though there are eyes and ears everywhere. Looking out onto the mud roof through her favorite picture window at school, Roya feels a connection to the poppies:
"Each day, the poppies seemed to reflect my own feelings of joy, sorrow, even fear. They spoke of hope, yet the danger hidden in their essence, that mysterious scent of opium, frightened me. With no gardener to care for them, they rose from that mud with pride, yet bent their heads in modesty. And, although I didn’t know a happier shade of red, they reminded me of sorrow."
Roya’s friend, Shireen, personifies the poppies in Roya’s world more than any other person. Shireen is a quietly devout Moslem who even prays at school. It is Shireen who gives Roya the forbidden book, The Little Black Fish, to read. When Roya fails to see the import of this children’s tale about the fish who bravely seeks to broaden his horizon by going in search of the ocean, Shireen underlines these words:
"Death can come at any moment, but…what matters is that my life, or death, should have a profound effect on the lives of others."
Roya eventually realizes that Shireen is a member of a political opposition group, Fadaiyan. The girls’ paths thus diverge. Roya pursues her medical studies while Shireen immerses herself in her cause. While Roya’s path eventually leads to the United States, Shireen’s leads to prison, torture and grief. Having managed to invest the reader in the lives of these girls, Ghahremani takes us on the journey of their lives through to the dawning of the Islamic Revolution. Is the Revolution what Shireen wanted? Does Roya ever make it back to Iran? Does she ever forgive her father for banishing her from her homeland because he feared for her life?
Ghahremani’s writing is dotted with poetic references and is beautifully lyrical in its style. Just like Roya’s picture window at school through which she admires the poppies, Ghahremani’s story provides us with a window through which we can view the past, both political and personal, and pay homage to those who have left imprints on our hearts and minds. The conclusion of the novel leaves one with an impression that is captured in a poem the sixteen-year-old Shireen reads to Roya by their picture window at school:
"You are gone, yet so many flowers come with spring
I am not the only one serenading you; thousands sing.
I scatter on your path one sky of red poppies.
Red poppies, the mirthful gems of the evening brimming."
Selected Other Reviews
Sky of Red Poppies walks the reader through stretches of breathtaking and thought-provoking narrative to provide answers to Iran's brilliant past and brutal present. Well worth considering!
Dr. Ahmad Karimi Hakkak, Professor of Persian Literature and Culture, University of Maryland.
Sky of Red Poppies takes its readers on a fascinating journey through the landscapes of Iran and provides a glimpse into a far too often overlooked side of Iranian culture and history. A must read!
Melody Moezzi, NPR commentator and author of War on Error.
"For many years I have had the privilege of publishing Ghahremani's charming, nostalgia-laced words of wisdom on the pages of Iranian.com. Now it's time for a broader audience to enjoy a heartfelt journey into a fascinating life."
Jahanshah Javid, Iranian.com.
"Ghahremani is that wonderful kind of writer who tells compelling stories in rich and lyrical language. ‘Sky of Red Poppies’ is an illustration of her mastery of both."
Judy Reeves, author of A Writer's Book of Days.
"Ghahremani understands the many conditions of the human heart . . . Sky of Red Poppies is a compassionate story of universal truths."
Yvonne Nelson Perry, author of The Other Side of the Island.
"Sky of Red Poppies is the moving story of relationships tested under the most stressful of human conditions, that of a repressive government. Zohreh Ghahremani writes with warmth, humanity and a poet's vision."
Claire Accomando, author of Love and Rutabaga.
"Set against the backdrop of a pre-revolution Iran, Sky of Red Poppies is a poetic epic and a powerful read."
Jonathan Yang, author of Exclusively Chloe.
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