The Blood of Flowers by Anita Amirrezvani centers on a fourteen-year-old girl during the 17th century in Iran who experiences difficult times. The girl hopes to get married within the year. However, her father passes on and together with her mother, they become loneliness and without dowry. Due to a lack of dowry, his future husband cancels the wedding.
The two are compelled by circumstances to sell the turquoise rug so as get the fare for their journey to Isfahan. As a result, they relocate to the city where they start living with Gostaham, who is their relative and works in the workshop of Shah Abbas the Great. Gostaham works as a designer and allows his niece to watch and study the skills of designing from him. Gostaham doubts whether a woman can learn how to design rugs. However, her niece’s skills amaze him.
Even though she is placed in a lowly position, the young girl excels as a wonderful designer of rugs. She is a rare case because the industry is dominated by men. She gets in love with Fareydoon but is compelled to accept singeh (Relationship for a temporary period) because her status is too low to be a formal wife. Nonetheless, things go south and she ends her relationship with Fareydoon.
Her decision has consequences because she is expelled together with her mother onto slum areas. Subsequently, the girl experiences ailments and starvation. However, she gains acumen and obligation. Besides, she regains her uncle’s favor and becomes a rug designer again. Here, she creates a new life and is able to find a man of her choice. Through the book, the author emphasizes the struggles and coming of age of women to find their way in a society aimed at keeping women dependent and hidden.
