Still, Farrin and Sidera manage to find a way to write letters to each other. And the principal strongly suggests to the parents that they should consider arranging a marriage for each girl - soon. Needless to say, they are forbidden to see each other anymore. Moved, the two girls embarce and kiss, just as Pargol enters the gym. When the assembly is abruptly ended, she recites the poem to Sadira when the two girls are alone in the gym. And finally, on a day the school is honoring an Iranian poet, Farrin chooses a is love poem to recite in assembly, hoping Sadira will understand it is her way of expressing her feelings. Farrin even feels she can trust Sadira enough to tell her about her mother's tea parties. The more Farrin and Sadira hang out together, the deeper their feelings for each other grow. Such things are illegal and the Revolutionary Guard is always on the look out for infractions of the country's strict laws.

And as time goes by, they discover they are attracted to each other beyond friendship. Her name is Sadira and by the end of the day, she and Farrin are friends. The secret activites of her parents and her mother's attitude that those who support the Revolution are low-class rabble have left Farrin not just without any friends, but really disliked by Pargol, the power-weilding class monitor, who would like nothing better than to get Farrin in really serious trouble.īut then one day, Farrin hears beautiful music at school and discovers a new girl playing a santour, a forbidden instrument. Farrin's family can afford many black market luxuries like alchohol her father is a successful businessman, building luxury homes, hiring illegal Afghans to do the building for little money and having them deported if they give him any trouble.įarrin attends a private school for gifted girls. Later, when the men join their wives there is dancing and alcohol, both illegal in the new Iran. On the first Monday of each month, her mother hosts a Bring Back the Shah Tea for Ladues of Culture, whose goal is to bring back the son of the Shah, since the Shah is already dead, and remove Ayatollah Khomeini. For 15 year old Farrin Kazemi this meant living a lie. It's 1988 in Tehran, Iran, nine years after the 1979 Revolution that sent the Shah of Iran into exile and the country's spiritual leader, Ayatollah Khomeini, became the Supreme Leader of Iran.

Moon at Nine by Deborah Ellis