It Ain't So Awful, Falafel

While this novel takes place in the United States, it concerns the effects of the Iranian Revolution on the main character and her family, who are Iranian citizens living in America. The novel focuses on the exile of Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi in 1979 through the release of the American hostages under the regime of Ayatollah Khomeini in 1981.

The seeds sown for the Iranian revolution date back to the 19th century when both Russia and Great Britain sought to control their tobacco interests in the region. Ultimately, an authoritarian dynasty united under a shah was supported by Great Britain in 1925. The first shah was forced by Britain and the Soviet Union to abdicate, and his son, Shah Mohommed Reza took his place in 1941. After World War II, a democratically elected government came to power in 1950, electing Prime Minister Mohammed Mossadegh. However, when Mossadegh was not amenable to British and American oil interests in Iran, the American Central Intelligence Agency sponsored a coup that put the shah back in power in 1953. The United States continued to support the shah by providing weapons and training his secret police, who worked to put down any resistance that arose through violence (Zunes, Stephen. “The Iranian Revolution (1977-1979).” International Center on Nonviolent Conflict, 2009).

More overt resistance swelled with support from the exiled Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in 1977, and over the course of the next two years, protests, strikes, boycotts, and tax refusals occurred. Some civilians were massacred by an increasingly oppressive shah-led regime, which was supported by economically and militarily by the Carter administration. In December of 1978, protests filled the streets with approximately nine million Iranians engaging in mostly nonviolent behaviors. The Shah then fled on January 11, 1979, the first explicit date mentioned in this novel. Two weeks later, the ayatollah returned, bringing together a variety of groups to form a theocracy that, by spring of 1981, was a totalitarian regime (Zunes).

The United States’ involvement with the shah’s regime led President Jimmy Carter to allow the shah to come to the United States after he was ousted from Iran. Several days later, 3,000 people invaded the American embassy, taking 66 Americans hostage and demanding the shah in return for the hostages. The shah eventually left the US for Panama. The US also attempted to negotiate for the hostages’ safe return before President Carter authorized a rescue mission, which ultimately failed and sent Carter’s approval rating down to 20%. The hostage crisis permeated American media, which Zomorod’s family experiences as they become glued to the television for news coming out of Iran. Ultimately, Carter was able to secure the hostages’ release by unfreezing Iranian assets at a time when Iran was going to war with Iraq, even though it did not happen until after he left office. The hostages left Iran on January 20, 1981 (“Jimmy Carter, Iran, and the Canadian Caper: The Iran Hostage Crisis.” The White House Historical Association).