Pahlavi era

The Pahlavi era enters the novel through Mahmoud’s memories of growing up under the Shah, whose secret police imprisoned and killed people opposing the regime. His family’s losses and his own later arrests make the period more than a political backdrop: it is the beginning of a history of state violence that continues after the monarchy falls.

Repression under the Shah

Mahmoud recalls that his father and mother died in prison for resisting the Shah. He was a small boy at the time. As he grew older, he joined the struggle against the regime and was imprisoned twice, where he endured beatings and electric torture. His account presents the Pahlavi state through the consequences for one family and for the young dissident who survived it.

Revolution and continuity

The Shah fled to the United States after Ayatollah Khomeini’s revolution brought a new government to power. Mahmoud’s account, however, marks a sharp contrast between political change and institutional continuity: the secret police, SAVAK, remained in operation, and people from the Shah’s system continued working under Khomeini. Mahmoud was imprisoned again and subjected to further abuse. The revolution changed who ruled, but in his experience it did not end the coercive practices or personnel associated with the old order.

Mahmoud’s life after Iran

After friends of his had died in prison and in the war against Iraq, Mahmoud escaped Iran and went to Bombay. He made a living in black-market business with other Iranians before Abdel Khader Khan took him into his service. Mahmoud remembers Abdel Khader Khan as the only great man he had met, and his grief at Khan’s death underscores how the upheavals of the Pahlavi era and its aftermath shaped the loyalties and losses he carried into exile.