Salaam,
What Déjà vu!
I am an American/Iranian citizen who lived in Iran in the 70s before and after the enghelab. (I have Iranian citizenship by marriage to an Iranian).
All of the news coverage and the stories of courageous freedom fighters bring back many memories of the last revolution. I was teaching in Iran at the time and often would get caught up in the demonstrations. I can remember the the sounds of gunfire and the (hopefully) stray shots that came into my classroom, the bullets whizzing past my head, pitting holes into the blackboard behind me, and fear for the kids who were my students.
I recall the curfews, the imposed power blackouts at night, the shortage of heating fuel and food, and our families gathering around the shortwave radio listening to BBC broadcasts, and going through endless roadblocks to reach my home just above Meydoon -e-Tadjrish.
I remember the entire family fleeing the country in fear of their lives. I remember locking the door to our house, handing the keys to our neighbors, crying all the way to the airport while watching out teh back window of the car saying good-bye to the beautiful country I loved so much and all of the beautiful Persians in my life -to my many close friends, from neighbors, to my many friends in the bazaar who plied me with endless glasses of chaiee, to the shopkeepers who lined the streets of my neighborhood – all of whom so warmly adopted me as their daughter!
Leaving Iran was the hardest thing I ever had to do, EVER! My years in Iran were the very best years of my life and I have never lost the yearning to return. Ey voi – ba-joon-eh-toe, dell-e-man enghat tang shodeh!
How I long to show my 15 yr old daughter her magnificent roots.
Maybe the day has finally come when Iranians will become free again. I shudder to think of the price that will be paid to gain this freedom – too much spilled blood, so many lives already lost, so many spirits broken from the endless torture in Evin, and so forth..
I have seen it all and lived it all – have lost too many loved ones. I fear the price that must be paid for freedom. Nonetheless, my heart is in solidarity with all
