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Saffron Ice Cream by Rashin Kheiriyeh came to our attention in 2018 when we noticed that it was receiving critical praise as a unique Own Voices story — it received a star from School Library Journal and a positive review from Kirkus, while also receiving criticism from some members of the Muslim community who vocalized concern about the depiction of Muslim women. The Kirkus review notes that an episode in the book, “may require further unpacking…” for some readers.

What follows is a discussion about the books amongst us that has been edited for brevity and clarity. (But it’s still long! We hope it’s worth the read.)

Ariana: Today we are discussing Saffron Ice Cream by Rashin Kheiriyeh who is an Iranian-American and was raised in Iran.

Ariana: We read this book with the knowledge that there are very few picture books that look at life in Iran, so we wanted to discuss it amongst ourselves. I also spoke with Beverly Slapin about the book; she then discussed it with several of her colleagues of Iranian/Persian background, Muslim and not, and I also discussed this with a friend of mine, Banafshe Sharifian, to get her perspective and opinion of the book as someone who has made multiple trips to Iran and has experienced living there, to offer us more context on the accuracy and authenticity.

 Hadeal: I struggled a little bit with the book. One of the images that stuck out to me was the one with the three boys peeking through the holes in the curtain and the looks on the faces of the Islamic Beach Guards, the way they are depicted here is where I struggle…This story of encountering two different worlds, is a reality for many people. This is the author’s story, at the same time, this book is for kids. Kirkus mentioned in their review that there might have to be a lot of unpacking for kids to be done because there is no author’s note that explains or mentions why certain people look the way they do or why they are separated. It is an experience in two different places. On one hand it is depicting reality, but on the other hand, it is a children’s book. How would I feel giving this to a child and having this possibly be their first exposure and depiction of Islam?

Sara: My issue was the first depiction of the Islamic guard dressed all in black, and what bothers me is that they are frowning at these girls at the beach even though it is allowed. Why are they looking so angry when people are just there to have fun and nothing has happened yet? There is not even a smile or neutral face that might have turned into a frown.

Mahasin: I don’t know. A couple of things. So it is a true story, so I feel that I have to honor the author’s experience and she is depicting it as she felt it. I wonder how much of our discomfort comes from viewing this through our own cultural lens. So the guards are clearly frowning, or at the least they clearly not smiling, but we have to grapple with the issue that United States residents, perhaps we have a preoccupation with smiles.

I am thinking about who the audience is and who and how this book has to be or would have to be unpacked…Is it odd for this picture book to be an introduction to Iran or even Islam? Is this an odd a first exposure– this juxtaposition between these women and the other people on the beach to an audience unfamiliar with either? Does it reinforce stereotypes or biases that children already have received? And if it does, is that okay, since it’s an Own Voices book? I don’t know much about the roles of the Islamic Beach Guards. There is one page where they are discussed as the “Islamic guard” and the word “Islamic” is in a font that stands out, and some of the other words do that as well but that really jumped out to me as the ISLAMIC guard.

Ariana: Right. And I think that was a deliberate choice.

Mahasin: Absolutely. “The ISLAMIC beach guard ran to fix the holes.” As a reader who doesn’t know much about Iran, but does know about Islamic norms, I wasn’t sure what it meant.

I do like that later in the book when there are a multitude of people at Coney Island and there is what is clearly a Muslim couple, who are wearing what I think many would consider “traditional” dress, who are smiling and look happy.

As a librarian, I can say that it is a book that is aesthetically well-done, is a compelling and interesting story, a real story, and I respect it as an Own Voices story. Although there are some universal themes in this story — of belonging, for example, it doesn’t strike me as a one that I would share during story time.

It is a book that I would use specifically to either discuss immigration, or constructs of gender in  children’s literature, but it’s not something that I would use with an audience that was unfamiliar with Iran or Islam.

I’m also struggling with what I am reading as a bit of an American (United States) exceptionalist bent. I can see a child reading this book and thinking, “ it’s wonderful she’s away from Iran where women have to run from the beach if they are seen by men and there are women in black policing everything. can “Isn’t it great that she came to America where we can all be free at the beach and you can have a Black friend!”

Ultimately, my question still remains: who is the audience for this book? There are so few books about Muslims and Middle Easterns and Iranians. I would be less puzzled at the end of it, if this was one of many stories about Muslims that were being published. To speak to the concerns of the Muslims who have been discussing the book, as a Muslim parent this is not a book I would select to purchase let alone read with my kids unless there it was part of a larger conversation. Perhaps as part of a conversation about what Islam looks like around the world, culture versus religion, the history of Iran, the Iranian Revolution, but not as, “Hey kids, this is tonight’s bedtime story.”

Hadeal: Every time I open this book I see one more thing that concerns me or that I didn’t see before. What you just said Mahasin, there are a lot of smiles on the people in New York and besides the struggle of the girl not finding the saffron ice cream that she wants, everything is good with the move and in America. If there were even a lifeguard in the United States who was depicted with a frown on their face, that would be encouraging, because then there would be a connection with the guards in Iran…but there is no explanation for their disgust. It seems that everyone in America is smiling.

Sara: Everyone. And I have to say that the Islamic guards are the only characters with eyebrows and their eyebrows are always angry, and that bothered me.

Ariana: Oh wow, I didn’t even notice that.

Sara: I looked through the whole book and no one else has eyebrows, and their eyebrows are always shaped angrily.

Hadeal: Not even the other Iranians have eyebrows.

Sara: On the last page where images from both Iran and Coney Island are combined, everyone on the Coney Island side is smiling and on the Iranian side there are the guards and the two girls in the water and they have negative expressions.

Ariana: Looking at last pages there is supposed to be a juxtaposition, but given the direction and the way the text flows and of course the way we read in English from left to right it looks like Iranian guard is coming over to threaten-

Sara: Yell at them.

Ariana: Right. So that’s what some of the commentary (by Muslims online) mentions. That was my knee-jerk reaction as well. So I was reading the story, and it’s lovely and then all of a sudden you get to the women in black and my reaction was, “what is this?” And then you look at those deliberate choices, the font, the eyebrows, it is purposeful.

One thing that Beverly brought up, from her experience growing up in Brooklyn, is that you would not normally find an orthodox Jewish man willing to sit between two women, which is what you find in one image in the book.

That said, I also want to give voice to those who don’t fit in the majority narrative or are the exception, I showed this book to another of my Muslim colleagues and she shared a story of her sister, who at the time wore hijab and was talking to (dating) an orthodox Jewish man and they would hold hands in the New York subway, so for her she saw their relationship, she didn’t see inaccuracy, but that’s an individual thing. And we talk about individuality and broad depictions of people, and for every exception we should also think about the many where the rule applies.

Beverly also shared with us thoughts of her Iranian colleagues who said that, “there are a lot of moments in Iran when you might get scolded by ‘chadori’ women and that those writing negative reviews are worried that one glimpse of an angry hijabi women means all hijabi women are angry….can’t it just mean that there’s an angry woman who happens to be hijabi?”

So basically, is this a constant false equivalency? And it’s partly what Mahasin had said earlier about our point of view. Who gets to be a critic? Do we have this kind of reaction when it’s something that comes from outside of the community or is permitted only as an internal dialog, where only we can talk about spaces in the masjid or Me Too in the masjid, or how patriarchal structure and other things that happen? Is it worse when it comes from an “insider” and who really is this for? Is it for the white gaze? I think that the author in an interview said that she wanted it to be something for Iranians. And to revisit everything that you said I want to give some commentary from Banafshe.

She appreciates this story of a girl, her friend and their favorite ice cream and how it will be different in a different place and the cultural themes. She was bothered by the women in black, but acknowledged that it is true, and gave context to the people on the beach not being disturbed by their presence, even though they are not known to be the nicest people, but it’s understood that they are just doing their job. Not all people that work for the government support the policies of the government, they just need to work to support their families like everyone else.

I asked her about smiling, and she did talk about cultural expectations about smiling, but everyone else in this book is smiling or they are worried. There are only three emotions in this book: anger, happiness, worry/shock.

Sara: I feel some type of way about that. I understand where she is coming from, that she has seen it, but there is no context whatsoever for a child or anyone reading this. The reader is just looking at the pictures, and children are very visual, and asking their parent, or whoever is reading it to them, why the character is upset and there is no context to explain why the characters are upset and they may have to make up something on the spot. They’re upset because they aren’t following the rules, but it’s open-ended.

Ariana: I feel like that could have been addressed by giving something to the parent or educator, but there is no guide or appendix. While a child can read it, the parent will have to go off their background or previous knowledge or infer something. There is no context. You can see their badges, so may be able to figure out that they are working, but no other context.

I asked Banafshe too if she had ever seen herself in a book and she said that only two works that she had ever seen were Persepolis and Reading Lolita in Tehran which are not children’s books. When people would make references to Iranians growing up, she would have people address her saying that they knew so much about Iran because they had watched Not Without My Daughter, “I’m so glad you are here now in this country” which implied that Iran and Iranian people were barbaric.

So we have come a long way and there is definitely room for improvement and I gave her more titles like Sara Saedi’s book Americanized, and Firoozeh Dumas’ adult and middle grade titles, and of course Taheri Mafi, Sara Farizan. But when it comes to children’s books, younger picture books, it seems like there is very little. So with this book there is unpacking that needs to be done, but it does feel unfair to put all of this on the shoulders of one author and one book, when it is her experience, but right now it’s a single narrative and it’s a problem without context.

I do have an appreciation for some of the universal themes of the book. There are scenes of joy in Iran. There are scenes of joy in America, even the dog is smiling. It’s multicultural, there is a rainbow flag, on the opposite page there is a Muslim couple, there are two men holding hands and wearing the same clothes- could be twins, could be a couple. Does this feed into this narrative that America is the best because you can be yourself?

She (Banafshe) also said that we can’t scream prejudice and bias when it’s a fact. There is truth in the fact that there is a freedom of ability to choose to be the kind of Muslim we want to be in the United States as opposed to in some  Muslim majority countries. We do want to see depictions of Muslims and Muslim countries as good, and Islam in a positive light, but we also have to admit that some of the places that Muslims from which Muslims have immigrated from have legitimate problems that caused people to immigrate to the United States. And of course, many of those problems are the result of colonialism, foreign policy, and war. All of this has to be unpacked.

All of that said, is the criticism of this book that we’ve seen fair? Are we struggling with this book because it is hard to hear from others that there are problems in our communities and some of our home countries? In order to move forward do we need to accept our collective flaws? And is it fair to put all of this onto one picture book?

Sara: Here’s my thing: There is no context. That’s what bothers me the most. I read your friend’s review before I read the book. And yes, I have had people scold me about my garb. But when you’re giving a kid a book and you are telling them to read it and there is no context whatsoever, and they are going off of what they are seeing, what they have heard their parents say or what the see on the news, the conclusion is whoever dressed like that must be a horrible, angry person all the time. She has no context of why she’s depicting these guards why she does.

Other than that, I didn’t know that Iran separated their beaches. I didn’t know about saffron ice cream, which I found interesting. My biggest takeaway was how she depicted the beach guards with no context. Had there been a line or two describing how the guards were upset or angered by the boys peeking through the holes, it would have explained things, rather than seeming angry that women are at the beach trying to enjoy themselves.

Ariana: And I think that plays into it. I think that everyone is enjoying themselves and I didn’t think that the beach guards are angry because the other women are enjoying themselves. I saw them on duty, on guard but just waiting for that breach by men. But that’s definitely a valid interpretation.

Sara: Especially since the reader doesn’t know that’s what’s going to happen.

Ariana: And maybe WE as readers can guess that because it is separated and it’s a plausible conflict. Even with all that said, one of the other things Banafshe asked me was what the age range of this book was. I looked and the publisher’s age range is between 4-8.

Sara: Oh no.

Ariana: And at least a Muslim child might have some context, but a child not from an Iranian background or Muslim culture may have so many more questions and absolutely no context, and she agreed and thought it was too young. She would share it with an older child, one who had that context and explain that not all countries or all cultures are the same and the expression and dress is different. She would use it in a high school or a cultural comparison class. In the end she said she would still not show it to a child.

Sara: I wouldn’t either to be honest. It’s not one that I would recommend.

Ariana: So what is our verdict? It’s complicated. Putting on the librarian hat, like Mahasin said, I would add it to a collection with a really, really, really strong desire for future publications to include an author’s note, background information or resources. There is a view, for example, that words in other languages in English books shouldn’t be italicized because they are othering. Do picture books need an author’s note because you’re assuming that for most readers it’s an alien experience? But, I just feel like if there is so little representation, we need that back matter and other resources.

Mahasin: It’s a book that is important to have, that takes a lot of unpacking. I think that those who are using it will have to be careful in how they are using it. I think it’s important to have more of these books, but I think this book is best utilized by those who can read it as part of a discussion. I look forward to more books about Iran and Muslims being published so that one book isn’t asked to do it all.