Rooftops of Tehran

Content Warning: The source text features depictions of political oppression and physical violence, including scenes of torture, mentions of sexual assault, and self-immolation.

The narrator, Pasha, sees that he is wearing blue robes and is in a wheelchair; he is disoriented. In the yard outside, other men in blue robes walk around. Suddenly, Pasha begins to shout and flail around. A nurse, referred to as “Apple Face” because of her round and kind face, comes to him. She sedates him, promising that the sedative will make him feel better.

Chapter 1 opens in the summer of 1973 in Tehran. Best friends Pasha and Ahmed stargaze on Pasha’s roof; this is a common pastime in Tehran. Pasha comments on people’s fear of the dark, and Ahmed laughs, mocking Pasha’s eloquent manner of speech. Pasha, who is 17, thinks about his future: His father wants him to become an engineer, but he wants to study literature or film. Pasha lives with his parents in a middle-class neighborhood where they have a typical Iranian house with a small pool in the front.

Ahmed, who is also 17 and is tall, strong, and slender, met Pasha in school when he rescued Pasha from bullies. Pasha’s father, an ex-heavyweight champion, taught them to box after this incident, despite Pasha’s mom worrying they would become violent. Once they became good boxers, Pasha and Ahmed planned to take revenge on their bullies, but Pasha’s father made them promise to only ever use boxing to defend themselves, according to the rules of the “fraternity of athletes” (18).

Another friend of theirs, Iraj, is the neighborhood chess champion and has a crush on Ahmed’s oldest sister. Ahmed warns him not to look at her, and Pasha jokes about Iraj becoming Ahmed’s brother-in-law. In turn, Ahmed threatens Pasha with Pasha’s mother’s concoctions. Pasha’s mother has labeled him an introvert because of his habit of not sharing things with others. To cure his introversion, she makes him herbal drinks that taste like “engine oil.”

Ahmed talks to Pasha about Faheemeh, the girl he loves, and how they communicate through looks. Pasha admits that Persians often communicate silently, thinking about his father reprimanding him with dirty looks. While Ahmed talks about Faheemeh, Pasha looks at his neighbor, Zari, whom he loves. However, Zari is engaged to Pasha’s friend and mentor Ramin Sobhi, who is called Doctor by everyone. Pasha feels guilty for being attracted to Zari.

Ahmed bikes to see Faheemeh every day. She is zealously guarded by her two older brothers, whom Ahmed befriends. When they play soccer, Ahmed is usually the goalie, but he plays poorly because he stands still to look at Faheemeh. When the brothers give him a different position, Ahmed makes a plan with Pasha: Pasha will pretend to injure him during a game, which will allow him to become the goalie again. The plan works well, and Ahmed and Faheemeh continue to share looks.

A few weeks later, while Pasha is on the rooftop, Ahmed visits with tears in his eyes. Faheemeh’s parents have chosen a suitor for her—a 26-year-old graduate who works at the Agricultural Ministry. Pasha empathizes with Ahmed’s pain, and both boys struggle to understand how a parent could marry their 17-year-old daughter off to a 26-year-old stranger. The next afternoon, they visit Faheemeh’s alley while the suitor and his family are inside Faheemeh’s home. The next day, Ahmed takes Pasha’s advice and confesses his feelings to Faheemeh; as a result, her brothers beat him up. Pasha and Ahmed hope that Faheemeh, knowing the truth about Ahmed’s feelings, will decline the marriage offer.

A few days later, Pasha hears his parents talking about a girl who has locked herself in her room because her parents refuse to accept her decision to not marry the suitor they have chosen for her. Later that night, Ahmed and Pasha sit together on the roof.

Pasha is delirious, unable to tell night from day or dreams from reality. He thinks he got burned but wonders how and why. He sees a man dressed in black looking up at him, and wonders if he is cold because of the dark clouds above or the man below him.

Pasha describes his friend and mentor, Doctor, as a calm, gentle, and patient person who visits Zari often. Pasha met Doctor through Ahmed, who quietly informed Pasha that Doctor was one of the people who didn’t like the Shah. Pasha remarked that most university students opposed the tyrannical regime.

Doctor and Pasha became friends because of their love of Russian literature, though Doctor primarily reads Marxist literature. Doctor is passionate about the rights of working-class people who suffer under the Shah’s capitalism. Ever since he was 12, Doctor has had to work to support his family after his father’s right hand was amputated due to a work accident. Afterward, his father was fired from his job despite 25 years of service. Doctor believes the Shah is a “puppet of the West” (41); he also hates the mullahs, who are Islamic theologians. After Doctor’s grandfather’s death, when he went to a mullah for the funeral arrangements, the mullah tried to forge a romantic relationship with Doctor’s widowed grandmother.

One day, knowing that Doctor reads a lot of banned books, Pasha shares how his father was almost caught reading a banned book. Pasha was six years old when the Shah’s secret police, SAVAK, forced their way into Pasha’s home. His father was reading a banned book in his study; he dropped the book on the floor and went out to greet them. Pasha picked up the book and hid it in his father’s secret vault. The police searched the house for hours but didn’t find the vault. Since then, his father has never kept banned books at home.

Doctor commends Pasha’s quick-thinking, saying Pasha has “That”—a special quality. This makes Pasha feel guiltier for desiring Zari and for wanting to beat up his bullies. Then, Doctor talks about a group of women and men who were recently arrested for plotting to kill the Shah. The media, which is heavily censored by the Shah, will air the trial. Any opposition to the Shah, including the opposition party, is labeled as terrorists.

That night, Pasha watches the trial with some friends and family. All the accused beg for forgiveness from the Shah except the leader, Golesorkhi, who accuses the Shah of being a dictator. Everyone is electrified by Golesorkhi’s bravery, but they are also heartbroken because they know he will be tortured and killed.

That night, Pasha can’t sleep, so he walks through the alley. At dawn, he notices Doctor. Doctor’s face is painted black, and he is taping posters of red roses in the alleys. Golesorkhi’s name means “red rose.” In the morning, everyone wonders who put up the posters, while Pasha worries about Doctor’s safety.

Five days later, Doctor tells Pasha he will travel north with some friends to educate the villagers and help them. Pasha reminds him that the SAVAK see such activities as suspicious. Doctor says he intends to marry Zari after he returns because he loves her, and Pasha feels conflicted about his feelings toward her. Before leaving, Doctor gives Pasha a book called The Gadfly by Ethel Voynich, which is about young revolutionaries in Italy. If Pasha is caught with the book, he will be imprisoned for six months. Pasha promises to treasure it and pretends he doesn’t know who put up the posters.

Pasha wishes he had the courage to tell Ahmed about his romantic feelings for Zari. He envisions Zari and Doctor living together happily. Sometimes, he wonders what would happen if Doctor wasn’t a part of their lives, but he pinches himself as a punishment for thinking such thoughts. One night, he confesses his feelings to Ahmed, who already suspected Pasha’s love for Zari. Pasha wonders if Ahmed thinks he is evil, but Ahmed laughs at Pasha worrying for nothing.

The next day, Ahmed forces Pasha to go to Zari’s house to help build a doghouse for Keivan, Zari’s six-year-old brother. While there, Pasha is distracted by Zari. Ahmed forces Zari and Pasha to talk about the book she’s currently reading by lying that it is Pasha’s favorite book. Ahmed also tells Pasha that Zari keeps looking at him, which Pasha refuses to accept. Afterward, Pasha chases Ahmed into Ahmed’s house for making him look foolish in front of Zari, but Ahmed eventually makes Pasha laugh.

Pasha dreams about Zari, Faheemeh, and Ahmed, but eventually, Zari and Ahmed leave, leaving Pasha and Faheemeh crying. In the background, Doctor reads from a poem by Rumi, a Persian Sufi mystic and poet, before chanting replaces the poetry. When Pasha comes to, he asks Apple Face for water. Then, he asks where he is and why he is there. The woman gives him vague answers.

Ahmed says he and Pasha will hang out every day with the girls. The four of them—Faheemeh, Zari, Pasha, and Ahmed—sit by the hose, which is a small yard pool under the cherry tree. Everyone else talks while Pasha observes them, feeling guilty about desiring Zari.

Eventually, Zari explains that she and Doctor will have an arranged marriage planned by their parents, who are close friends. While she is happy with Doctor, she is envious of Ahmed and Faheemeh’s romantic relationship. She feels that in comparison, her relationship with Doctor is boring. She also talks about how religiously strict her maternal family is; all the women wear chadors, an open cloak that only leaves a woman’s face exposed. She talks about the “Masked Angel,” her beautiful cousin who wears a burqa but could be a Hollywood star if she chose. Ahmed brags about Pasha’s knowledge of American films, boasting that Pasha will be a great filmmaker someday. Zari explains that Doctor believes that Hollywood is run by the Zionists. Faheemeh and Zari don’t know what Zionism is, but they understand it is not good. Pasha explains Zionism is about the “creation of the state of Israel” (70), which is different from Jews and Judaism.

After a while, Zari calls Pasha inside the house, allowing Faheemeh and Ahmed to have a private moment. Zari asks Pasha if he loves someone, and after her relentless teasing, Pasha hints that he loves Zari. Zari looks at him questioningly, but eventually says she will find out the answer from Ahmed. The four of them take a photograph together to commemorate their friendship.

Later that night, while talking to Ahmed, Pasha wonders how well he really knows Zari. Ahmed pretends to think for a while before telling Pasha he should go to the West, date someone for years, and then come home and marry Zari.

As summer passes, the four become intimate friends, sharing personal experiences with each other. Faheemeh and Ahmed fall deeper in love, and Zari again points out that her relationship with Doctor is different from theirs. However, she feels lucky to be with Doctor. Pasha wonders if Doctor ever asked Zari what she wants.

Sometimes, Zari and Pasha head inside the house to leave Faheemeh and Ahmed alone. One day, Zari shows Pasha her notebook of sketches she’s drawn of their alley, explaining she likes to draw people and places. Then, she shows Pasha pictures of the Masked Angel—her cousin Soraya—in the family album. Soraya and Zari are best friends.

One day, Zari asks Pasha if he is nervous about going to America, and Pasha thinks about how he expressed his displeasure about going to America to mother. His mother, in response, fed him more engine oil. He shares the engine oil story with Zari, and then talks about how his father received a magazine from a friend in Europe. In the magazine, there were pictures of people starving in Biafra, and other atrocities. Seeing such images allows him to put his worries and nervousness aside, because they give him perspective. Zari expresses that she loves how composed Pasha is.

A month before summer ends, on the last Saturday of August, Ahmed and Pasha bring roses to the girls. Ahmed give Faheemeh a red rose symbolizing love, and Pasha gives Zari a white rose symbolizing friendship. Zari puts the rose in her hair and looks at Pasha. Pasha notes that Zari starts to dress nicer around him, and Faheemeh explains Zari is trying to look prettier for Pasha. One afternoon, Pasha compliments Zari’s hair, and she vows to always wear her hair in that style.