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.

Pasha, a 17-year-old boy, is the protagonist of the novel. Rooftops of Tehran is written in the first-person narrative voice from Pasha’s perspective. An introspective, loyal, and courageous teenager, Pasha is best friends with Ahmed. He is also secretly in love with Zari, his neighbor. His parents want Pasha to go to the US to study engineering, but Pasha’s real passion is filmmaking. Pasha shares a loving and supportive relationship with his parents. After the trauma of watching Zari self-immolate, Pasha spends a long time at the Roozbeh Psychiatric Hospital, unable to remember the tragic events that led to his hospitalization.

Pasha feels guilty about his romantic feelings for Zari because he feels like he is betraying his friend and mentor, Doctor, who is betrothed to Zari. After Doctor’s death, Pasha’s love for Zari deepens, alongside his feelings of guilt, despair, and betrayal. Zari returns Pasha’s feelings, and this is a source of internal conflict for both characters.