Woman, Life, Freedom: An Interview with an Iranian-American

By: Khadija Coats

Interviewer— Khadija Coats

Interviewee— “Julia”

*The name used in the article has been changed*

As the number of protests in Iran has grown over time, many Iranian immigrants have voiced their opinions on the ongoing events, including the deadly protests and the unjust arrests in Iran and the experiences they’ve encountered growing up in the country.

I recently had the opportunity to interview Julia, an Iranian immigrant currently living in the US who grew up during the height of the Iranian revolution of 1979. According to Julia, between the protestors is one commonality: they all want change for Iran.

“This is only because they want to separate religion from politics, and they want democracy in their country.”

I asked Julia what it was like to grow up in Iran, and she said that she missed her childhood days.

“Those days there wasn’t this much of a gap between people and government, maybe because we had a good economy and there weren’t social media, like Instagram or Facebook, so the only source of information was our government.”

“And your teenage years?” I asked, curious if her experience drastically changed at all in her teen years.

“As a teenager, I was really Muslim,” she says. “I fasted all of Ramadan, prayed often, and stayed away from activities that were considered huge sins. I also never listened to pop music because it was restricted.”

Julia has recently returned to Iran after a period of absence, and her emotions regarding the trip were complex.

“About going back to Iran, I always compare the feeling to the feeling of seeing your mother after a long time. I’m usually extremely happy going back to Iran, but it’s been a while and my mom, Iran, is kind of sick, and she’s getting worse over time. This time – I was there last month – my visit was a bit different.”

Despite this, Julia still believes there is hope to change this situation.

Julia commented on the street protests and chants, including her own thoughts and feelings on the matter.

“It seems that people have made a collective decision to change everything, so people were together, they were smiling at each other and showed each other’s victory signs in the streets. My feeling, like most people, was complicated: one second, happy, another extremely sad because of all the upsetting news surrounding the protests, but we all knew that it was not a good time to be sad or happy, that it was time to just be angry, and to do something with this anger, like going out in the streets to protest or going on the roof to chant.”

I asked Julia if she’s had any experiences with the morality police in Iran and she said yes.

“Yes, I had an experience with the Morality Police in Iran, like most of my friends. We’ve all experienced it, unfortunately.”

Julia describes the experience she encountered with the Morality Police when she was around the age of 22 or 23.

“It was my friend’s birthday”, she starts, “and I was in a perfume shop to buy something as a gift for her when suddenly one of their officers came into the shop and asked me to come with them. I was pretty covered then, but they told me ‘Your Manto’, which is the name of the robe that we use to cover our body, ‘is white and I can see the t-shirt you’re wearing under that’.

Julia was arrested as a result of “breaking” the modesty law where she was then interrogated for three hours.

“After that, they told me you should call your parents to bring you a covered manto, then we can let you go. I knew that it was so unacceptable for me to call my parents and tell them that I was in jail and to release me.”

She recounts how nervous she felt during this time and she shares how she had to tell her friend to her to the police that she was her sister because only family were able to visit for these situations.

“It was a very scary moment for me. After some time, I called my friend and asked her to come and release me from jail. At this time, I was seriously thinking about going somewhere out of Iran, but my dad told me he could not let me go out alone, so after a while, I just tried to forget what was happening to me.”

I then asked Julia to talk a little bit about the slogan being used in these protests; “Women, Life, Freedom”, and what these slogans mean to Iranians. Julia responded by sharing the history of the Islamic Republic.

“With the revolution of 1978, Ayatollah Khomeini rose to power. He introduced Islamic laws as the focus of his administration. These laws included a woman not being able to take custody of their children after a divorce, a woman not being able to leave the house, study, or leave the country without their husband’s permission, and mandatory hijab for all women including non-Muslims.

Julia sees the Islamic Regime as a regime based on discrimination, a regime that limits what women can and can’t do. Limitations such as these are the reasons why slogans such as “Women, Life, Freedom” have been created, to spread awareness.

“All these years of discrimination, along with not having a normal life because of the bad economy as well as not having personal or social freedoms have caused the creation of the slogan “Women, Life, Freedom”.

The interview ended with just two last questions for Julia. I asked Julia about the things she would like people to take away from these protests and the ongoing events in Iran. I also asked her how we can support or show solidarity for the women of Iran and their fight for their rights. Julia starts by informing me of the current issue happening in Iran: internet shutdowns. The Iranian government has completely cut off the internet as a way to prevent the world from hearing the voices of protest.

“I remember asking one of my American friends, who’s an influencer with an Instagram account with 60,000 followers, if she could post something to spread awareness about the happenings in Iran, and she only said that I should learn to solve my own problems.”

Julia describes how this made her feel and why she thinks it's important to speak out about things like this.

“I felt lonely and sad. Since September, when protests started to significantly increase in number, more than 500 civilians have been killed, 56 of them being children. Also, more than 18,000 people have been arrested. People are protesting only because they want to separate religion from politics and because they also want democracy in their country. So as an Iranian American, I ask that you please be our voice.”

In an age of technology and social media, advocacy has never been more important. Julia's story shares an important message to the world about how important it is to make use of the technology you have and to be the voice of those whose voices are restricted.