Twice Under the Persian Sky

I have long thought that freedom is an essential human requirement. Without it, life is worthless. Without freedom, life is nothing but a deception, a mirage.

Iran was and still is a country without freedom. It is a country in which an authoritarian, theocratic regime silences voices and crushes dreams. Iranians in Iran live in constant fear and oppression. Iranians play a nerve-wracking game of cat and mouse with the regime. They live a duplicitous, hypocritical life of doublespeak. They have to do so to survive.

A façade of normalcy seems to exist throughout Iran, but in reality Iranians struggle to find something that is a shadow of true normalcy. The way people dress, act, and speak in public is completely different from the way they behave behind closed doors. Why? Because their lives depend on it. They could get arrested, jailed, tortured, or even executed for dressing, acting, or speaking freely. Americans generally cannot comprehend what it is like to experience this type of existence-you cannot really call it "life."

Hope was the only thing that allowed me to survive in Iran for 10 long years. My hope grew that one day I would be able to escape Iran and be free at last. One day my hope would be realized and I would be free from oppression, free to practice or not practice a religion, and free from a theocratic regime that micromanaged almost every aspect of my life.

This story, told through the voice of a fictional character, shows why I had to escape and how I did it. Although I worked to make the most of the freedom I gained, most of the story after the protagonist AJ arrives in America is fictional.