Assal B

In response to the brilliant invitation sent by Nazy Kaviani for the writers of Iranian.com to express their feelings in a show of solidarity with regard to recent events, beginning with "Everyone knows..."

Everyone knows that the Iranian and American versions of me will always be at war.

Everyone knows that nothing in Iran will change, but they dare to hope despite this knowledge.

It's the American in me that feels a strange pitter patter of pride well up within my heart when I see their signs, their protests, their peaceful defiance against unbeatable odds. 

The Iranian in me waves off that feeling, shrugs it off, scoffs and sneers and tells me not to get my hopes up; that good things happen and fairytales come true only for Americans. That Iranians are doomed by fate and circumstance to always remain prisoner to the will of powers outside their control.

The American in me shakes her head at the Iranian view. The American in me looks at how far we've come in America, to chaining men on plantations and counting them as inhuman to electing the first black man as our president. The American in me knows that when people hope and believe in the power to change, they can become the change they seek to see in the world.

Everyone knows the Iranian and American versions of me will always be at war.

All I know is, that however un-Iranian it might sound, I hope the American in me is right.

I hope Iran's future is as bright as the future Americans created for themselves by hoping and believing in the power of the people, not prayer and other imaginary things.