Did you know it's easier to be transsexual in Iran than homosexual? According to the novel and Wikipedia, the only country in the world that does more sex reassigngment surgeries than Iran is Thailand, and many of the surgeries are subsidized by the government. Being born the wrong gender is an ailment, being queer is a sinful aberration. So that's what our heroine Sahar is dealing with as her best friend, who she has wanted to marry since the girls were six years old, gets engaged to a dude.
One thing I appreciate about the story is that Nasrin is flawed, and Sahar knows it. So often in YA fiction, the love and the lovers are depicted as ever-true. Sometimes Nasrin is so annoying that you can't figure out why Sahar can be bothered, but I think we've all had a needy, dramatic and vulnerable friend or lover that we couldn't stay away from, so it's understandable.