Growing Up in Iran’s Most Legendary Cultural Salon
As Ebrahim Golestan gained prominence through his literature, documentaries, and films, the family home transformed into a legendary gathering place for Iranian intellectuals. Every Friday, leading figures of modern Persian culture gathered there. Among them were writers such as Jalal Al-e Ahmad, Sadeq Chubak, Parviz Dariush, poet Mehdi Akhavan Sales, and later innovators like Yadollah Royaee, Farrokh Ghaffari, Simin Daneshvar, and younger artists such as Bahram Beyzai and Ahmadreza Ahmadi.
For Lily Golestan, this was not a romanticized intellectual paradise. It was overwhelming, intense, and often emotionally destabilizing. As she later wrote, she was not a participant but a silent observer—watching great figures debate aesthetic modernity, politics, censorship, exile, and identity.
