My father was executed by the government after the Islamic Iranian revolution in 1989. I was only about 5 at that time, so it’s all a bit blurry. But I remember waking up one early morning and Mum saying, ‘We're leaving’. We didn’t even get a chance to say...
My parents both migrated to Australia from Iran in the 70s. Dad worked for the Iranian embassy at first, and later as a public servant, and Mum was a biochemist at the CSIRO. I didn’t experience much discrimination initially because I had pale skin and a pretty Aussie...
By the age of 25, I had a great job, my own import business which I was running on the side, my own apartment, a very good car, and a good group of friends. Life was treating me very well. But then all that changed. In 2009, our president was re-elected, but as most...
In Iran, I had a job as a researcher in Aquatic Animal Health. But opportunities to grow and develop a profile in national and international levels for a female scientist were very limited, so it was always in the back of my mind to leave. Still, when I told my...
The first time we tried to leave Iran was not a success. We paid people smugglers to take us to Turkey. They divided us into two groups and said they would be moving us three days apart. In the first group was my mum, 3 sisters, my uncle and a friend. In the second...
