Middle East | Queer Books for Teens

Darius the Great Is Not Okay (Darius the Great #1)

By Adib Khorram

Darius doesn’t think he’ll ever be enough, in America or in Iran.

Darius Kellner speaks better Klingon than Farsi, and he knows more about Hobbit social cues than Persian ones. He’s about to take his first-ever trip to Iran, and it’s pretty overwhelming—especially when he’s also dealing with clinical depression, a disapproving dad, and a chronically anemic social life. In Iran, he gets to know his ailing but still formidable grandfather, his loving grandmother, and the rest of his mom’s family for the first time. And he meets Sohrab, the boy next door who changes everything.

Sohrab makes sure people speak English so Darius can understand what’s going on. He gets Darius an Iranian National Football Team jersey that makes him feel like a True Persian for the first time. And he understands that sometimes, best friends don’t have to talk. Darius has never had a true friend before, but now he’s spending his days with Sohrab playing soccer, eating rosewater ice cream, and sitting together for hours in their special place, a rooftop overlooking the Yazdi skyline.

Sohrab calls him Darioush—the original Persian version of his name—and Darius has never felt more like himself than he does now that he’s Darioush to Sohrab. When it’s time to go home to America, he’ll have to find a way to be Darioush on his own.

Representation: biracial (Persian, white) MC with depression. MC is in the earliest stages of questioning.

Ownvoices: Persian representation.

If You Could Be Mine

By Sara Farizan

Sahar has loved her best friend Nasrin since childhood, but gay relationships are illegal in Iran. When Nasrin’s parents announce her arranged marriage, Sahar frantically searches for options and considers sex reassignment to allow her to be with Nasrin.

Publisher’s Description

Seventeen-year-old Sahar has been in love with her best friend, Nasrin, since they were six. They’ve shared stolen kisses and romantic promises. But Iran is a dangerous place for two girls in love—Sahar and Nasrin could be beaten, imprisoned, even executed if their relationship came to light.

So they carry on in secret—until Nasrin’s parents announce that they’ve arranged for her marriage. Nasrin tries to persuade Sahar that they can go on as they have been, only now with new comforts provided by the decent, well-to-do doctor Nasrin will marry. But Sahar dreams of loving Nasrin exclusively—and openly.

Then Sahar discovers what seems like the perfect solution. In Iran, homosexuality may be a crime, but to be a man trapped in a woman’s body is seen as nature’s mistake, and sex reassignment is legal and accessible. As a man, Sahar could be the one to marry Nasrin. Sahar will never be able to love the one she wants, in the body she wants to be loved in, without risking her life. Is saving her love worth sacrificing her true self?

Genre: Contemporary

Representation:
Gender:
Cis girls: Nasrin, Sahar
Note: Sahar explores transitioning but does not identify as trans
Many side trans characters

Sexual Orientation:
Lesbian/Queer: Nasrin, Sahar

Romantic Orientation:
Homoromantic: Nasrin, Sahar

Race/Ethnicity:
Middle Eastern/North African: Nasrin, Sahar

Religion
Islam

Trigger warnings: homophobia, questionable trans portrayal. See review above.

Moon at Nine

By Deborah Ellis

In 1988 Tehran after the Shah has been overthrown, wealthy fifteen-year-old Farrin must keep her mother’s political activity secret while navigating a blossoming romance with her friend Sadira in a country where homosexuality is punishable by death.

Publisher’s Description:

Fifteen-year-old Farrin has many secrets. Although she goes to a school for gifted girls in Tehran, as the daughter of an aristocratic mother and wealthy father, Farrin must keep a low profile. It is 1988; ever since the Shah was overthrown, the deeply conservative and religious government controls every facet of life in Iran. If the Revolutionary Guard finds out about her mother’s Bring Back the Shah activities, her family could be thrown in jail, or worse.

The day she meets Sadira, Farrin’s life changes forever. Sadira is funny, wise, and outgoing; the two girls become inseparable. But as their friendship deepens into romance, the relationship takes a dangerous turn. It is against the law to be gay in Iran; the punishment is death. Despite their efforts to keep their love secret, the girls are discovered and arrested. Separated from Sadira, Farrin can only pray as she awaits execution. Will her family find a way to save them both?

Genre: Historical Fiction

Representation:
Gender:
Cis girls: Farrin, Sadira

Sexual Orientation:
Lesbian/Queer: Farrin, Sadira

Romantic Orientation:
Not explicitly addressed.

Race/Ethnicity:
Iranian: Farrin, Sadira

Trigger Warnings:
Murder, death, kill your gays, homophobia/homomisia. Being gay is against the law and both girls are sentenced to execution. Sadira is executed and Farrin is married off.

A Map of Home

By Randa Jarrar

Nidali is a bi, religious Palestinian woman who recounts a childhood in Kuwait, her teenage years in Egypt, and then fleeing to America in the 90s.

Publisher’s Description

Nidali narrates the story of her childhood in Kuwait, her teenage years in Egypt, and her family’s last flight to Texas, offering a humorous, sharp but loving portrait of an eccentric middle-class family.

Nidali, the rebellious daughter of an Egyptian-Greek mother and a Palestinian father, narrates the story of her childhood in Kuwait, her teenage years in Egypt (to where she and her family fled the 1990 Iraqi invasion), and her family’s last flight to Texas. Nidali mixes humor with a sharp, loving portrait of an eccentric middle-class family, and this perspective keeps her buoyant through the hardships she encounters: the humiliation of going through a checkpoint on a visit to her father’s home in the West Bank; the fights with her father, who wants her to become a famous professor and stay away from boys; the end of her childhood as Iraq invades Kuwait on her thirteenth birthday; and the scare she gives her family when she runs away from home.

Funny, charming, and heartbreaking, A Map of Home is the kind of book Tristram Shandy or Huck Finn would have narrated had they been born Egyptian-Palestinian and female in the 1970s.

Genre: Historical

Representation:
Gender:
Cis girls: Nidali

Sexual Orientation:
Bisexual: Nidali

Romantic Orientation:
Biromantic: Nidali

Race/Ethnicity:
Middle Eastern/North African: Nidali

Religion:
Islam: Nidali

Trigger Warnings: Violence and war