An Iranian-American with dual citizenship reflects on the privilege of visiting Iran ten times, contrasting it with diaspora groups like Mexican-Americans who travel freely. They dream of organizing trips to show friends Persepolis, Kish Island, and Iranian cuisine, but know it depends on a future free Iran.
Chapters
You know, I'm an Iranian who lives abroad who has had the luxury of traveling back to Iran in my lifetime. Although I was born and raised in the States, I hold both passports, and I've been to Iran maybe like 10 times throughout my life. And I do not take this for granted because there are so many Iranians out there living abroad who were born and raised abroad who have never had the chance or experience to go to Iran and can't under the current political climate. Imagine that there is a whole generation of us, many of my Iranian American friends, who I cannot just get up and go back to our home country together with. For example, I have a lot of Mexican friends living in Texas. They travel to Mexico together. They get to go all around the country. They get to go all over and experience their culture and experience their family's different distinct cultures and cuisines. Us as the Iranian diaspora, that is something that we just don't have the luxury of doing, which is so unfortunate because I want to plan a trip. I want to plan a trip with my Iranian American friends. I want to plan a trip with my American friends. I want to show them the beauty of my culture and country, and I want to have them taste the cuisines and see Persepolis and see Kish Island and see the Caspian Sea where my family is from. These are all distant dreams, but hopefully in the near future— not that they won't be any more distant, you know— hopefully in the near future we can all go back and see a free Iran altogether.
