These mothers represent the class structure, the injustice, and the poverty created over the years in Iranian society. I’m more interested in the human side of things, and to me, sort of runs parallel to the story of Iran in the last sort of half century. Mostly because I didn’t want to make the story political, really. What made you decide to depict Iran’s political revolution through the lens of a network of women and families? The stories of my own life were the catalyst for Aria. She’s sixteen, she’s running away from a man who’s chasing her, and she’s about to give birth it parallels how I felt society was treating women. Actually, the very first scene I ever wrote for the novel (it actually got cut from the book) was the very first thing that came to my mind: Aria’s mother, her birth mother, is pregnant when she’s very young.

I wanted to set the scene of this girl in this environment. I couldn’t understand it, and I was seeing my mother often abused in the streets As I was getting older, maturing, and looking more woman-like, I started to feel it coming towards me. I was born in Iran just before the revolution a time quite a lot of human rights violations, and particularly bad women. Bitch spoke with Hozar about her novel, how parts of her own life inspired her to write it, and what it means to write historical fiction. Weaving together a coming-of-age story with a story of political unrest, Aria should be at the top of anyone’s list who wants a candid introduction to life during the Iranian Revolution.

Along with Aria, we begin to understand the complexities of gender, religion, and class relations in a politically dynamic time and place. Throughout Aria’s travels and transformations, the reader is introduced to various perspectives, histories, and contexts making for a more complete picture of the characters and their lives. Taken in by Behrouz Bakhtiar, a soldier who happens to be walking by, she is given the name Aria “after all the world’s pains and all the world’s loves.” Thus begins Aria’s story as she goes from living with Behrouz and Zahra, his abusive wife, to living with a wealthy family, attending school, and much more. Nazanine Hozar’s debut novel Aria tells the story of a young girl who, as a baby, is found on the streets of Tehran during the political unrest that culminates in the Iranian Revolution. This article was published in Power Issue #88 | Fall 2020 Subscribe »

Aria by Nazanine Hozar