Chapters 3 & 4 Summary and Analysis

Chapter 3, The American School, opens in 1933 when Satti was 12 and Reza Shah closed her school, which was run by members of the peaceful Bahai religion. Poor Iranians regarded the Bahai as godless heretics, a prejudice that some mullahs or religious leaders encouraged. Satti began attending the American School for Girls, run by Presbyterian missionaries headed by Dr. Samuel Jordan. Family finances played a part in this decision, as Shazdeh can no longer afford a French governess or to send his younger children to expensive boarding schools in England and France.

Like many Iranians of her generation, Satti was immensely impressed by the Americans, who seemed decisive, self-confident and unselfishly interested in improving Iran for all its citizens. They genuinely seemed to want the fledgling Iranian democracy to stand on its own two feet., free of Russian or British influence. Satti loved...